Canada Post delivers a downer

In one of my favourite episodes of the 1990s sitcom Married with Children, the lead character, Al Bundy, refuses to vote because he doesn’t care about any of the issues. That is, until he learns about a ballot measure to tax beer, which motivates him to start a grassroots movement to protect working-class people like himself from having to use their “whole paycheque just to buy one beer.” When they fail at the ballot box, he leads a riot of blue- collar workers through the streets of Chicago.

The point is that people will put up with a lot, but try to take away their ability to have a drink — or, for that matter, smoke a joint or a cigarette — at the end of a stressful day and there will be hell to pay. This is even more true in the midst of a pandemic, which is why most states and provinces throughout North America have put liquor stores, and often cannabis dispensaries, on the list of essential services that are allowed to remain open.

And there’s good reason for this. Around noon on March 23, the mayor of Denver announced that cannabis and liquor stores would be temporarily closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This caused people to rush to stores, with some retailers reporting lineups that stretched around the block. By the end of the day, the mayor’s office realized the measure was having the opposite effect it was intended to and reversed course.

Similarly, when Ontario was set to release its first list of businesses that would be forced to close due to COVID-19 in March, there were reports of long lines at some cannabis stores, as people feared they would be cut off from their supply.

The same thing happened on April 4, after the provincial government announced that pot shops would be required to close at midnight.

That announcement provoked a swift backlash from retailers and consumers. To its credit, the Ford government announced on April 7 that it would allow licensed pot shops to offer curbside pickup and delivery services.

This will be key because, in the absence of private stores, the only legal way to buy marijuana in the province is through the Ontario Cannabis Store and, although it is working with a private company to offer door- to- door delivery in parts of south- central Ontario, most of the province has no choice but to have their pot delivered by Canada Post.

And in this time of crisis, when individuals and businesses are relying on the postal service to deliver the goods we need, or desperately want, the government letter carrier has let us down. In response to the pandemic, Canada Post announced at the end of last month that postal workers would no longer be meeting people at their doors.

That means that packages no longer require signatures and will simply be left at the doorstep, which is great, because there’s nothing worse than ordering something to your house only to find a note saying that you need to trudge down to the post office to pick it up. But the same is not true of packages that require people to verify their age. These are being sent directly to the post office.

And it is not only cannabis shipments that require age verification — alcohol and electronic cigarette retailers are also legally required to ensure their customers are above the age of majority.

In fairness, many provinces have relaxed the rules surrounding alcohol delivery during this outbreak. Bars and restaurants in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario can now deliver alcoholic beverages along with food orders. But why should someone who, say, wants to order a bottle of vodka from a government liquor store, or has to purchase e- cigarettes online because vape shops have been forced to close, be required to stand in line at the post office and risk exposing themselves — and others, including the postal worker behind the counter — to the virus? ( It’s much easier to transmit indoors than out.) If private delivery drivers can check IDS through a window or from two metres away, there’s no reason Canada Post employees can’t do the same, while forgoing the need for signatures, as other companies are doing.

It is good that most provincial governments seem to have recognized that in these stressful times, people want access to substances that help take the edge off ( I, for one, could not imagine being cooped up in the house with two small children without a bottle of whisky in the cupboard). It’s high time our federal letter carrier realized the same and found a way to deliver all packages to Canadians’ doorsteps, while keeping their employees and customers safe.

It’s high time our federal letter carrier found a way

to deliver all packages.