Courthouse News Service
With no clear rules from health or drug authorities, thousands of businesses openly sell psilocybin mushrooms even though the compound is banned.
RIO DE JANEIRO (CN) — Touted as a natural way to sharpen focus, boost energy, ease stress and strengthen immunity, so-called “functional mushrooms” are fueling a fast-growing consumer market in Brazil.
But on July 1, Brazil’s health agency Anvisa banned the production, sale and advertisement of Mush Mush Club, which claims to be the country’s top seller of mushroom-based wellness products.
The agency said in a statement the ban was due to a lack of proper registration and because the company was advertising therapeutic effects — only allowed for officially approved medicines in Brazil.
While functional extracts are targeted over unsupported claims, mushrooms that actually alter the mind — so-called magic mushrooms — remain widely available, despite containing substances banned by Anvisa.
Psilocybin and psilocin have been on the country’s list of controlled substances since the 1990s. But the fungi that naturally produce them, like Psilocybe cubensis, are not listed among prohibited plants or fungi. This legal mismatch has created a gray zone where the active ingredient is banned, but its host organism can still be cultivated, sold and consumed.
“The mushroom itself is not explicitly banned,” said Emilio Nabas Figueiredo, a drug policy attorney and one of the main legal advocates behind the medical cannabis movement in Brazil. “Anvisa interprets it as a substrate containing a prohibited substance. So when it’s seized and analyzed, the substance shows up. And that leads to legal debate.”
Two-pronged regulation
Two recent cases illustrate the legal ambiguity surrounding psychedelic mushrooms in Brazil.
In April, the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso do Sul acquitted a grower accused of drug trafficking, ruling that while the mushroom contains a banned substance, the organism itself is not outlawed and there was no criminal intent.
But in the Federal District, another grower was arrested in 2023 and charged with trafficking after setting up a home lab — a case based solely on the presence of the banned compound.
Despite the legal gray area, Brazil’s magic mushroom trade is thriving. Around 5,000 registered businesses currently sell psilocybin mushrooms openly, including online, where dried mushrooms go for about $4 a gram and grow kits start at $17, said Daniel Cardoso Rodrigues. He is a legal scholar who studies psychedelic regulation at the Micélio Sagrado Institute, a Brazilian nonprofit dedicated to psychedelic education and advocacy.
Attorney Raphaella Nogueira, who specializes in cannabis and psychedelics, said: “These shops tend to fly under the radar. It’s not that Anvisa doesn’t know — they know — but the shops are not in the spotlight. They go after the functional ones because they’re more visible, and that puts pressure on regulators.”
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In legal limbo, Brazil’s psychedelic mushroom market sprouts unchecked
