KANNON: Still waiting to be treated like adults

prospects of minors buying beer, believing it’s easier to police The Beer Store than thousands of smaller outlets.

While monitoring is easier with some 450 beer stores versus an estimated 10,000 convenience stores, we don’t know that the changes would lead to rampant abuse.

Critics take aim at the convenience factor, claiming it would increase the amount of drinking. Again, the numbers don’t bear out that argument.

It certainly doesn’t take much extra planning to stop by a beer or liquor store, and hours have been extended due to public demand; the convenience angle is overplayed. From an environmental standpoint, however, there is an upside to being able to walk to the corner store to pick something up rather than having to climb in your car to do so. Especially advantageous for all concerned if you’re going for a refill.

The best arguments in favour of beer and wine in supermarkets and convenience stores are economic.

Unlike the LCBO, which is owned by the province and looks after so-called hard liquor, The Beer Store is a near-monopoly in private hands.

Such changes seem like a no-brainer. For the government, however, there is risk in change, especially when it has anything to do with something resembling moral implications – even after all these years, the ghost of prohibition still haunts us.