TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A mushroom dispensary has now joined the tattoo shops and cigar dispensaries in Ybor City.
“Chillum Mushrooms and Hemp Dispensary” is located at 1714 E 7th Avenue. It is the first hemp dispensary in the Tampa Bay area, and it recently has added mushroom products to its product line. Chillum said it is the first mushroom dispensary in the United States.
“A venture they believe in so strongly that they are now calling themselves a Mushroom Dispensary. The store now stocks different grow kits, spores and mycology cultures, functional mushrooms and yes…. Magic Mushrooms!” a press release stated.
The “magic mushrooms” are legal by federal law because, according to Chillum, they don’t contain psilocybin but chemicals that are legal and surprisingly similar. Psilocybin is the hallucinogenic chemical in certain mushrooms.
“Yes, they make you trip!” Chillum said.
Carlos Hermida owns Chillum and has a background in the cannabis and hemp industries. Hermida is cofounder and deputy director of the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or Suncoast NORML.
“I was heavily involved in the cannabis and hemp movement in Tampa Bay and across Florida and I see psychedelics and mushrooms in particular as the next big step toward freedom,” Hermida said.
Chillum is selling grow kits and mycelium cultures rather than psilocybin, or any controlled substances.
“Psilocybin is still illegal, but the study of mycology is very legal as long as there is no psilocybin present.” explained Hermida, “That is why we sell mycelium for psilocybin mushrooms. It is our hope that in promoting the study of psilocybin will promote the legalization or all magic mushrooms. That being said, if you express the want to grow these mushrooms, we legally have to deny you service.”
Chillum is open every day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Customers are able to chose from a variety of different, legal mushroom products, including Amanita Muscaria mushrooms, a legal magic mushroom.
