Pubdate: Sat, 02 Jul 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Page: IN 10

KEEP OPTIONS OPEN ON SELLING POT

There are plenty of legitimate concerns about marijuana use, including
its effects on young people

Has the Ontario government learned nothing from its decades-long
struggle to find the right balance between safety and paternalism when
it comes to selling alcohol? Judging by the path it seems to be going
down on how to handle recreational marijuana, the answer, sadly, is
no.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and her finance minister, Charles Sousa, have
made it abundantly clear that when the Trudeau government gets around
to acting on its promise to legalize marijuana (quite likely by this
time next year), the province's favoured option is that it be sold
through the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO).

True, they're going through the motions of studying various
possibilities. But at every opportunity, Wynne and Sousa point to the
LCBO as a secure, established, well-run mechanism for selling
intoxicating substances. Alcohol today - why not pot tomorrow?

At first glance, it may make a lot of sense. Especially when the
choice is set up as one between the safe, familiar LCBO and a supposed
"free-for-all" of dodgy pot shops pushing cheap weed on unsuspecting
kids.

In fact, that's not the real choice we face. There are other ways of
safely retailing marijuana that would not involve giving the state-run
liquor monopoly total control over this new and lucrative market.

There are at least two big reasons to pause and consider whether
Ontario really should go down the road being pushed by the province,
by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief pot policy adviser,
Scarborough MP Bill Blair, and (not surprisingly) by the union that
represents liquor store workers.

First, consumers deserve to be treated as adults capable of making
decisions about what legal substances they use. It's obvious but it
still needs to be said in staid, paternalistic Ontario.

There are plenty of legitimate concerns about marijuana use, including
its effects on young people and how to deter people while driving
under the influence. Once the federal government makes it legal, we'll
need well-thought-out policies to cover a host of issues. That
includes how best to protect kids; how to keep the streets safe by
enforcing the law against driving while stoned; and whether marijuana
advertising should be allowed (that one's easy: it shouldn't).

At the same time, though, once pot is legalized it will be in the same
category as alcohol - and adult consumers must ultimately be trusted.

Second, one of the key goals of legalization is to kill the illegal
market and drive out the criminal element. If prices are kept too high
and pot is made difficult or awkward to buy in the name of safety, the
illegal market will continue to flourish. Handing it over to the LCBO
risks that result. There's a robust underground network in place right
now and it won't be killed if pot is made too inaccessible.

We've gone through all this with booze. The LCBO was once a grim place
that deliberately shamed consumers who had the temerity to buy its
products. Now it's open and friendly. And the Wynne government, to its
credit, opened the doors further by chipping away at the Beer Store's
monopoly and making beer and wine available in selected supermarkets.
The sky didn't fall.

Why on earth, then, would it repeat the same pattern by giving the
LCBO the exclusive right to sell pot? It should consider a more
flexible model that combines sales through liquor stores along with a
network of licensed and properly regulated dispensaries.

A working model for such a network exists in Colorado, which legalized
recreational pot two years ago (it's also legal in Washington state,
Oregon and Alaska). Marijuana can be bought in privately owned
dispensaries that check ID and age (purchasers must be 21 or older),
and resemble pharmacies more than head shops.

Store owners risk losing their licence - and therefore their
livelihood - if they're caught selling to minors. So far it seems to
be working. A new survey by the state health department shows that pot
use among Colorado teens has not changed appreciably since
legalization, despite fears that it would create a lost generation of
stoners.

It's not hard to imagine a similar system in Ontario, complementing
LCBO outlets. Dispensary owners would have to pay a substantial fee
for operating, collect taxes on pot on behalf of the government and
strictly apply whatever age limit is set for purchase.

Limits would also have to be set on the number and location of
dispensaries. The recent proliferation of pop-up pot stores in Toronto
- - some of them near schools - is a result of the current vacuum in the
law. It's exactly what would not be permitted under a well-regulated
marijuana retail system.

Politicians who point to that chaos in order to defend turning all
sales over to the state-run liquor monopoly are being deliberately
ingenuous. They can figure out a better system, if they choose to.

What they choose to do will depend to a great extent on public
opinion, which is sharply divided. But a new poll this week found that
among various options, the government's favoured choice of handing
marijuana sales over to the LCBO was ranked lowest.

Oddly, more than a third (35 per cent) of those polled by Forum
Research would like recreational pot to be sold in pharmacies. That
might make sense now, when it's permitted only for medical use, but
once marijuana is declared legal there's little logic to having
pharmacists dispense it.

Just over a quarter of those polled prefer sales through private
dispensaries, while only 20 per cent think it should be sold through
the LCBO. Evidently, combining booze and pot in the same location
doesn't sound like a good idea to a lot of people.

If there's a message for the government in all this, it's to keep your
options open. Don't get locked into a single rigid distribution system
that treats adult consumers like naughty children and allows a
substantial black market to survive.

And don't fear a backlash once Ottawa legalizes marijuana. Public
opinion may be more open to change than you think.
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MAP posted-by: Matt