The Wonderland Mushroom Dispensary in St. Paul is now open for business — the first of its kind in Minnesota.  

“I have always been a huge, huge fan of natural health,” declares owner Steven Brown. “It’s another alternative to opioids and alcohol and all these other bad substances out there.”

The Grand Avenue facility, which opened Wednesday, sells 150 edible products, made with nine different mushroom species.

The menu includes gummies, bars, capsules and vape products.

You’ll find labels with words like “d-stress” and “calm.”

“We just want to show people there’s another way to maybe take care of their anxiety or their pain without using harmful pharmaceuticals,” Brown notes.

He says three of the products sold at Wonderland contain mushrooms mixed with THC, the chemical compound that can make you high.

But Brown adds nothing in the dispensary contains psilocybin — illegal in Minnesota — which can cause psychoactive effects.

“It’s a very good alternative for myself, personally,” explains Hanna Solarz, from Brooklyn Park. “I’m dealing with a lot of chronic pain issues, and I have a hard time sleeping and eating.”

She bought several items, including a few for her uncle, a two-time cancer survivor.

It’s an improvement, Solarz says, over conventional prescribed drugs.

“There are no weird feelings,” she says. “It’s literally energy, or you feel calm energy, rather than feeling like jittery, from caffeine or something.”

It turns out, scientists at the University of Minnesota are researching the effects of mushrooms — with and without psilocybin.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked Dr. Ranji Varghese, with the Institute for Integrated Therapies, about these psilocybin-free mushroom products.

“They have some effects on immune defense, energy support, cognitive functioning to some degree,” he explains.

But Varghese says it’s not a bad idea to check with your doctor before using them.

“Large promises to me about the curative effect of these sort of substances, I just have hard time buying,” he notes. “You don’t know what else might be manufactured with those particular substances that may interact with medications or may worsen someone’s underlying medical condition.”

Brown says the marketing of mushroom products containing psilocybin in Minnesota — if it happens — is likely years away.

Those products are now legal only in Colorado and Oregon.

In Minnesota, state lawmakers would have to approve any steps in that direction.

“If it’s a mushroom extract that you can readily buy from the store — or a mushroom from a store — it’s probably safe,” Varghese says. “You don’t know what you’re buying until you actually meet with the person, maybe meet with the people that manufacture what’s in the product.”

For now, Brown says he’s happy to be at the forefront of mushroom extracts sales.

“They’re in demand as supplements, so we can’t legally make any health claims,” he says. “People do use these products for anxiety, for pain, for sleep, for relaxation. We’re really about education and natural health, and this is just another avenue for mental health for us.”