‘Brazen flouting of the law’ Osborne Village magic-mushroom seller shut down by police sentenced to house arrest By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 5:13 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 11, 2024 Last Modified: 5:14 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 11, 2024 Updates

There was no magic escape from prosecution for an Ottawa woman arrested after opening an Osborne Village shop that sold illegal psychedelic mushrooms last spring.

Hosnia Qazi, 38, was one of two people charged with possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking last May, six days after Magic Mush opened on the Osborne Village strip.

Qazi, an Ontario real estate agent who ran the store with her boyfriend, Damien Hiebert, had requested a discharge that would spare her a criminal record, but was instead handed a nine-month conditional sentence to be served under house arrest.

“This was a brazen flouting of the law,” said provincial court Judge Sam Raposo on Wednesday. “A shop was opened up to sell illegal drugs. The drug had no safeguards, and the business was set up for profit.”

Psilocybin is an active chemical compound in magic mushrooms. It is classified as a schedule III substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Unless authorized by Health Canada, the production, sale and possession of it is illegal. Some exemptions have been made for people who have mental health disorders, among other reasons.

Court was told undercover police officers went to Magic Mush two times shortly after it opened and made purchases. On neither occasion was the officer asked for identification or offered advice or product information, said Crown attorney Dan Manning.

When one officer asked Qazi if she could recommend a particular product for his girlfriend’s anxiety problem or if a doctor’s note would be required, she replied: “No, not at this time. We don’t take any prescriptions because we just opened up, and we are trying to gauge the temperature of the police right now.”

While the store purported to offer different “strains” of mushroom, “it was all the same stuff,” Manning said.

The store “ran a brisk trade” during its brief time in operation, with lineups down the block, he said.

“The fact of the matter is we don’t know where these mushrooms came from. We don’t know if they were safe or not. We don’t know anything about them.”–Crown attorney Dan Manning

Unlike early marijuana dispensary cases that came before the court, where many of the operators only sold to customers who had a prescription or for purposes of health and well-being, Magic Mush “was a solely for-profit enterprise,” that had no quality controls and used packaging designed to resemble that of legally sold cannabis, Manning said.

“The fact of the matter is we don’t know where these mushrooms came from. We don’t know if they were safe or not. We don’t know anything about them,” he said.

In the days prior to police raiding the shop on May 19, Qazi’s and Hiebert’s lawyer at the time, Jamie Kagan, told the Free Press: “There are a lot of issues in Winnipeg that need police attention. A business selling a product that people want and can consume with care doesn’t need to be the focus of their attention.”

In another media interview, Kagan described the sale of magic mushrooms as a “legal grey area,” court heard.

“It appears, to your detriment, you relied on the advice of previous counsel… indicating the sale of magic mushrooms was somehow a grey area in the law,” the judge told Qazi. “This was horrible advice.”

Jack Lloyd, Qazi’s current lawyer, told court police had planned to issue Qazi and Hiebert a warning to shut down the store, but after Kagan told the media the store would reopen if it was raided, police did just that.

Police seized 39 13-gram baggies of mushrooms from the store, as well as loose mushrooms, capsules and edibles and $3,700 in cash. Police executed a search warrant at a Waterfront Drive home where Qazi and Hiebert were living and seized more mushrooms, packaging material, score sheets and $13,000 in cash.

Court was told Hiebert died of a fentanyl overdose before he could be charged. LLoyd alleged Qazi was emotionally and physically abused by Hiebert, who was the chief driver of the operation.

Qazi “was dragged along in the venture by a bad boyfriend,” Lloyd said.

“She has no interest in any further dalliance with this public flouting of the law,” he said.

Manning said he had no doubt Qazi had been deterred from any further involvement in crime, but argued a criminal discharge, as recommended by the defence, would not be in the public interest.

Qazi “took a calculated risk” she might not be charged, and that if she was, the Crown might not prosecute her or offer her a discharge, Manning said.

“These risks are against the backdrop of a very lucrative business opportunity,” he said. A discharge… would allow these calculated risks where someone may say: ‘Guess what? Manitoba is open for business.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca