Provincial pot sales boost powers of nanny state
ED WHITCOMB
Recent developments in Ontario suggest our problem with booze and pot is not that the general population is or might become drunk, high and out-of-control but rather that the politicians and bureaucrats are drunk with power and the insatiable desire to control the lives of ordinary citizens.
The government has become a control-freak, as demonstrated by recent changes to liquor regulations and the proposal that the LCBO sell pot. We might rename it the Liquor and Pot Control-Freak Board of Ontario, the LPCFBO.
With recent changes to liquor laws, one might find a shopping mall with one store licensed to sell any type of wine. Another will be licensed to sell Ontario wines. Some might be licensed to sell beer, or some brands of beer. Others will not be licensed to sell any wines or beer.
None will be licensed to sell any hard liquor. The government-owned LCBO will be licensed to sell all kinds of alcohol as well as beer in small quantities and with restricted choice.
The privately owned Beer Store cannot sell wine or liquor but can buy wine and liquor bottles previously purchased from the LCBO next door.
None of the above differences have the slightest thing to do with the “control” part of the mandate of the Liquor Control Act, which was designed 90 years ago to eliminate drunkenness.
The only “control” being exercised is that of politicians and bureaucrats over which stores can sell what, when, how, where, and to whom. The politicians and bureaucrats can then dispense the favour, or reject it. After weighing the political advantages.
Then, next July, in another corner of the mall, a subsidiary of the LCBO will be selling pot. The clerks will be civil servants, not businesspeople. The supplies will be hidden from view. Customers cannot compare and select products. A province of 14 million will be served by 40 stores, guaranteeing a shortage of supply.
This approach is being defended as “cautious,” when in fact it is foolhardy as it guarantees that hundreds of thousands of customers will use illegal suppliers because of the deliberately limited availability.
That prediction is already being used to justify the absurd claim that making pot legal requires more policing, not less!
The government’s arguments that it needs a LCBO-type organization to market pot because it is a “dangerous” substance does not stand up to examination. Jurisdictions in other provinces, states and countries market liquor quite safely without using government monopolies.
It is easier to buy liquor in the world’s largest Islamic country than in Ontario, as was the case in Nazi Europe and the Communist world. Ontario manages to market beer and tobacco through private companies. And if we need government control to market “dangerous substances,” then where is the FCBO, the Fireworks Control Board of Ontario, because surely private companies should not be entrusted to keep fireworks out of the hands of children under 18 as the law requires.
A good question to ask is, who benefits from the LCBO and the proposed LCBO pot monopoly? It is certainly not ordinary Ontarians. It is not the 18 year old who knows exactly where to get supplies for the weekend party and will continue to know no matter what laws and regulations governments introduce.
It is definitely not the frustrated dad trudging from store to store looking for the one blessed with the privilege of selling French wine. It is not the workers and shareholders of Store A who watch their customers flock to Store B because someone in Toronto decided that Store B can sell both wine and cheese.
No, the beneficiaries of the nanny state are the politicians and bureaucrats who enjoy the power of granting or withholding licences to sell things.
They are the companies with cosy relations with governments and the local manufacturers who seek protection from competition. They are the employees of the LCBO. They are the police whose staffing, importance and budgets will decline if useless laws are eliminated.
Proposing that the LCBO sell pot may just be the wake-up call Ontario needs to get the nanny state out of our lives. — Ed Whitcomb is author of Rivals for Power, a history of Canadian federalism.