{"id":44525,"date":"2018-08-14T05:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=44525"},"modified":"2021-08-06T12:03:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T16:03:03","slug":"ontario-embraces-online-sales-for-marijuana-with-retail-stores-to-follow-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2018\/08\/14\/ontario-embraces-online-sales-for-marijuana-with-retail-stores-to-follow-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario embraces online sales for marijuana, with retail stores to follow in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Selley<\/a> on the Ontario government’s surprisingly sensible approach to phasing in retail sales of cannabis over the next eight months:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s Progressive Conservative government called a brief truce in its multi-front war with the federal Liberals on Monday to give one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s signature policies a major boost: as had been widely rumoured, the Tories will scrap the previous Liberal government\u2019s tentative public marijuana retail scheme and instead hand out licenses to the private sector.<\/p>\n

How many licenses and what kinds of stores are just two of many unresolved details. The government says it will consult widely to determine how best to proceed, with a target opening date for licensed brick-and-mortar stores of April 1, 2019 (with publicly run online sales to commence in October). But it seems safe to hope the cap, if any, will be significantly higher than the previous government\u2019s laughably timid 150.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Toronto\u2019s reluctantly laissez-faire approach to illegal storefront (nudge-wink) \u201cmedical\u201d marijuana \u201cdispensaries,\u201d we know 150 might not even satisfy a free market in the country\u2019s largest city. Trudeau has always said the goal of legalization was to smash the illegal market and plunk down a legal one in its place. The Ontario Liberals\u2019 plan seemed almost tailor-made to fail in that endeavour.<\/p>\n

There remains ample room for the new government to screw this up. But if it gets pricing and regulation and enforcement halfway right, the country\u2019s most populous province should now be well placed to give legalization a good shot at achieving what proponents have always said it should \u2014 which is, basically, to make it like booze. Of course kids still get their hands on booze, but at least it\u2019s a bit of a chore. And at least when kids get drunk, they\u2019re not drinking moonshine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The need to claim the retail market from the existing extra-legal networks will hinge on quality, availability and (especially) the prices that the province sets. Price it too high (pun unintentional), and the legal market will not take over distribution and sales from the black market. Provide poor quality and get the same results. Restrict sales too stringently, and watch the profits go back to the current dealers … who are not noted for their sensibilities about selling drugs to the under-aged.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, it\u2019s interesting to ponder why they\u2019re going in this direction. Fedeli and Attorney-General Caroline Mulroney were at great pains Monday to stress their primary concern was the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, we want to protect our kids,\u201d said Mulroney. \u201cThere will be no compromise, no expense spared, to ensure that our kids will be protected following the legalization of the drug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder no circumstances \u2014 none \u2014 will we tolerate anybody sharing, selling or otherwise providing cannabis to anybody under the age of 19,\u201d said Mulroney. Fedeli vowed that even a single sale to a minor would void a retailer\u2019s license.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet, let’s be honest, kids well under the age of 19 can already<\/em> get cannabis and other illicit drugs — more so in urban and suburban areas, but it’s hard to imagine that legalizing cannabis for 19-plus customers somehow magically renders the under-19s uninterested in getting access, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Selley on the Ontario government’s surprisingly sensible approach to phasing in retail sales of cannabis over the next eight months: Ontario\u2019s Progressive Conservative government called a brief truce in its multi-front war with the federal Liberals on Monday to give one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s signature policies a major boost: as had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,6,84,10],"tags":[1432,1188,83,87,661],"class_list":["post-44525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-cancon","category-government","category-liberty","tag-blackmarket","tag-dougford","tag-marijuana","tag-ontario","tag-regulation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-bA9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44527,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44525\/revisions\/44527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}