Dispensary employee granted discharge
Fun Guyz on St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines raided in 2023
A man who worked at a magic mushroom dispensary in downtown St. Catharines, an illegal enterprise described by a judge as “flagrant and notorious,” has been granted a conditional discharge.
Judge Andrew Brown said Philip Garcia had “diminished culpability” as he was not the mastermind behind the operation, but merely the sole employee who happened to be behind the counter when police raided Fun Guyz in the spring of 2023.
“I do not minimize the cost to our community when drug traffickers set up storefront operations to sell illegal substances,” Brown said in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines Friday.
“I also note that in this, and perhaps other cases, the owneroperators were not either identified or charged.
“It is possible that the owneroperators choose to employ persons without criminal records and who are otherwise of good character, recognizing that these visible storefront operations are doomed to attract the attention of police and be closed within a short time.”
The judge said it is possible the defendant, and others like him, are “mere grist for the mill for these operators.”
“In other words, a cost to owner-operators of doing business,” he said.
Garcia, who had no prior criminal record, was granted a conditional discharge on a charge of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.
He was placed on probation for two years and ordered to perform 160 hours of community service.
The 36-year-old was arrested in March 2023 after Niagara Regional Police executed a warrant at the illegal dispensary on St. Paul Street.
Police seized more than 400 grams of psilocybin mushrooms as well as various products containing psilocybin, including 88 chocolate bars, 68 jars of spreadable chocolate, 25 packages of gummies, 13 bags of tea and six bags of hot chocolate.
Also seized was more than 2,500 “micro dose” capsules of psilocybin.
The seized products had an estimated street value of more than $15,000.
The judge said the operation, in a busy commercial part of downtown, was “flagrant, open and notorious.”
Brown said the owner-operator was “sticking their magic mushrooms in the face of legitimate business owners and lawbiding citizens, essentially playing catch me if you can.”
“An illegal storefront operation selling drugs of this sort invites at best a perception to the public that either such products are lawful when they are not, or such illegal sales of products in the community are of no concern or consequence to the police, elected representatives or other law-abiding persons.”
The defendant, the judge said, was “a very small cog in a much larger machine,” but he must have been aware of the illegal nature of business.
Lawyer Jack Lloyd had advocated for a discharge, saying his client took his $15 an hour job out of “desperation” in order to support his family.
The judge agreed the defendant had diminished culpability in terms of the operation, and that a custodial sentence was not warranted.
“I caution those who look to this case, do not be emboldened or find it of some precedential value,” the judge added.
“The unique facts of this case drive the ultimate sentence.”
Magic mushrooms contain hallucinogens, usually psilocybin. It is illegal to produce, sell or possess them in Canada.
According to Health Canada, there is increasing interest in purported therapeutic uses of magic mushrooms and of psilocybin. While some initial clinical trials have shown promising results, the evidence is limited.
“Despite some scientific debate as to the potential therapeutic aspects of this drug, Parliament has spoken and, currently, psilocybin remains an illegal drug,” the judge said.
Garcia was also banned from working at a dispensary that sells psilocybin or psilocybininfused products.
Police raided the same downtown dispensary a second time in August 2023.
In that case, a 31-year-old woman was arrested and more than $21,000 in products was seized.
That case remains before the courts.
According to its website, Fun Guyz has more than a dozen locations in Ontario and Quebec.
Many of the stores in the chain have been raided by police multiple times.