The co-owner of a downtown Windsor mushroom dispensary that was raided Thursday by the Windsor police Drugs and Guns Enforcement Unit says they plan to re-open the location at, 395 Ouellette Avenue, Friday morning at 11 a.m.
The illegal shop opened last week drawing concern from community advocates.
Police say since the store opened they received numerous complaints about the store selling products containing psilocybin or magic mushrooms, which remains illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
The co-owner of FunGuyz, Edgars Gorbans, spoke with AM800's The Shift a few hours after the raid and said this was exactly what they wanted.
"Now it's going to be a lot easier to launch a constitutional challenge in Windsor. And also going through the court system is a lot faster with a criminal charge, with all the other people doing constitutional challenge without the criminal courts, it's a lot harder to get through the system. So this is exactly what we needed."
He says he's not the type of person that likes to wait for the Government to legalize magic mushrooms.
"I'm the type of person that launches multiple constitutional challenges all over the province and we're going to be the ones to legalize magic mushrooms in Canada."
He says this is important to him because he says magic mushrooms help people with issues such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and drug addiction.
"The stigma around it has gone on for too long and also the government has been hiding it for too long. It's magic mushrooms, you can grow the mushrooms in your own household and make your own medicine within your household right?."
He says they plan to re-open the Windsor location Friday at 11 a.m.
"We have a big team behind us and we have a lot of people supporting us so we're able to just walk back in and open up. We have a job to do, they [police] have a job to do. We respect the law. This is an act of disobedience in order to legalize magic mushrooms and we're going to continue on with the fight."
Gorbans says police seized TV's, product and an ATM but they're still prepared to re-open Friday.
"We have a whole storage unit full of stuff ready to go for when these type of things happen where we can open right back up. We're prepared more than ever."
Seized product is pictured in a Windsor police vehicle after the Windsor police Drug and Gun Enforcement Unit executed a search warrant at FunGuyz mushroom dispensary in downtown Windsor, July 6, 2023. (Photo by AM800's Rob Hindi)
Ward 3 city councillor Renaldo Agostino is reacting to the news of the raid saying he's glad it happened.
"And I'm glad that you know there's a level of responsibility and a level of justice, where if you're doing something that you're not allowed to do, and we're not talking about a question of opinion, we're talking about the law, and if the law's the law, you have to follow the law."
He says those who continually break the law just to prove a point should be subject to harsher penalties.
"And if we're talking about $100,000 or $1 million, right? Something's got to be done to make sure that we put laws in place to protect people and the protection of the people must come first and I'm happy to see it."
He says from those he's heard from on this issue, eighty per cent are in favour of enforcement.
"And then there's other people that are you know like 'aw c'mon, just let it go, just let it go' and I'm like, it's not about that because what's next? Are we going to allow brothels tomorrow? Like what do we get into next. And that's the problem here right? We can't be selective when it comes to the law."
Agostino says he had concerns the owners would re-open FunGuyz.
"You know I'm sure that the city, and me being part of the city, will look into ways to make sure if that's the choice and that's the decision that the business owner is going to make, that it's going to cost a lot of money to make that mistake."
AM800 News reached out to Windsor police for comment on Friday's re-opening but did not hear back.
-With files from AM800's The Shift & Rob Hindi