Quebec Health Department should sell pot, says think-tank

Forget the private sector and the Société des alcools du Québec. A Montreal think-tank says the government department that oversees hospitals should manage pot sales.

To generate bigger profits, private vendors would target young people, increase marijuana potency and press governments to relax pot laws, as seen in Colorado and Washington, the Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques (IRIS) says in a study published Tuesday.

And opting for stores run by the liquor-store monopoly could open the door to alcohol and marijuana (a dangerous combination, they say) being sold side by side, and to pressure from the SAQ’s only shareholder — Quebec’s finance department — to boost profits without regard to detrimental health effects, the study says.

Unlike a private company, a government body would sell quality products at good prices, limit points of sale, prevent young people from buying, help fight the black market and adequately train store personnel, study author Philippe Hurteau, a researcher at the non-profit think-tank, said in an interview.

Some fear a pot division of the SAQ would become a cash cow, with the finance department squeezing it for more money to help erase deficits or to finance tax cuts, Hurteau said.

“A simple solution would be for the Crown corporation to be under the control of the Health Department, with all profits going to prevention campaigns and education on healthy consumption habits, as well as to pay for the social and health costs generated by cannabis.”

The new study comes 10 months after another IRIS study — about the economic impact of legalized marijuana — backed the idea of the SAQ selling pot via a stand-alone chain of stores that does not sell alcohol.

Both the previous study and the new one were partially funded by the union that represents SAQ workers.

Hurteau said the second study was influenced by recommendations by Quebec public health officials, who have urged the province not to use the SAQ as a model because the liquor-store monopoly is expected to turn a profit.

The federal government has laid out a framework for legalizing marijuana by July 1, 2018, but provinces must decide how it will be distributed and sold.

In Ontario, the only province to announce detailed plans, a government-run body — the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which operates liquor stores — will oversee retail sales in separate pot stores.