For years, psychedelic drugs like psilocybin mushrooms or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) have been illegal to grow, purchase or sell in Canada. Yet these drugs are now being used in large numbers as microdoses, a practice that involves taking very small, sub-hallucinogenic doses of a psychedelic substance to achieve beneficial effects. Microdosers report a variety of health and psychological benefits, such as improved mood and reduced anxiety and stress.

But despite the Thirdeye Microdose of the microdosing trend, scientific research on these chemicals is extremely limited. This is in part because psilocybin is classified as a Schedule III controlled drug, meaning it is considered to have a high risk of abuse and addiction. It is also illegal to possess or cultivate psilocybin mushrooms without a license from Health Canada. As a result, much of what people know about microdosing is based on informal case studies and anecdotes rather than official research.

Small Doses, Big Impact: How Microdosing Mushrooms is Changing Minds in Canada

Shannon Chiarenza, who owns the Microdose Mushrooms Canada dispensary in Vancouver, says she is seeing more people seek out psilocybin as a way to improve their lives. For those interested in purchasing a larger dose, she offers capsules of 25 to 100 milligrams of psilocybin. She says she keeps her prices low to make the medicine accessible to more people.

But experts, including Dominique Morisano, a clinical psychologist who provides psychedelic-assisted therapy for depression and end of life care in Toronto, are skeptical about claims that mushrooms or other psychoactive substances will be effective as microdoses. She says she hasn’t seen any evidence that psilocybin is effective for these purposes, even in a controlled setting where it’s used in psychedelic-assisted therapy.