The Natural Health Products Regulations define a natural health product as a substance in Schedule 1 (or a combination whose medicinal ingredients are all in Schedule 1), a homeopathic medicine or a traditional medicine, sold or represented for treating or preventing disease, or for restoring, correcting or modifying organic functions in humans (Justice Laws, NHPR). Schedule 1 includes fungi.
The definition excludes substances in Schedule 2, which in turn excludes substances listed in the drug schedules, so psilocybin cannot be a natural health product (Justice Laws, NHPR). Being the kind of substance that could qualify is also not the same as being licensed: the Minister assigns a product number to each natural health product for which a product licence is issued, and the label number people search for as an “NPN” is that number (Justice Laws, NHPR).
This matters for mushrooms that are not controlled, such as Amanita muscaria, which Health Canada’s ingredient database can list while no licence has been issued for any product. A listing is not a safety review. Not legal or medical advice.
General information, not legal advice.
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