LCBO will open 150 pot shops
Government-controlled outlets, website only place weed will be bought legally
Premier Kathleen Wynne is cornering Ontario’s recreational marijuana market by restricting sales to 150 LCBO-run stores.
The stand-alone cannabis outlets, separate from provincially owned liquor stores, and a government-controlled website will be the only place weed can lawfully be sold after Ottawa legalizes it on July 1.
In a move that will close scores of illegal “dispensaries” that now dot Ontario cities, the LCBO will get its product from the medical marijuana producers licenced by Health Canada.
Only those 19 and older will be allowed to purchase or possess marijuana, and pot consumption will be limited to private homes.
Smoking weed will continue to be illegal in any public space, including parks, workplaces and motorized vehicles. Prices will be kept competitive to curb the black market.
The government expects a boost in tax revenues.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi and Health Minister Eric Hoskins unveiled the plan Friday at Queen’s Park after months of work from Ontario’s cannabis secretariat.
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which runs the province’s 651 liquor stores, using workers who are members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, will oversee all retail sales and run the online service.
Naqvi said the government has “heard people across Ontario are anxious about the federal legalization of cannabis.”
“The province is moving forward with a safe and sensible approach to legalization that will ensure we can keep our communities and roads safe, promote public health and harm reduction, and protect Ontario’s young people,” the attorney general said.
There will be 40 LCBO weed stores in place across the province on July1, 2018, 80 by 2019, and 150 in 2020.
“We will draw upon our decades of experience and work in partnership with the government to deliver on its objectives,” said LCBO president and CEO George Soleas, stressing the Crown corporation supports “moderate consumption.”
OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas hailed the Liberals for “a prudent plan.”
“There is no downside to today’s announcement; it’s a model that we encourage other provinces to emulate,” Thomas said.
Online sales will begin next July after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government legalizes recreational marijuana.
The premier has long maintained the LCBO should run things, because the booze monopoly has staff trained to keep underage drinkers from buying alcohol and has a tightly controlled distribution channel.
Jodie Emery, co-owner of Cannabis Culture, said the government should have allowed the storefronts to continue. “Do not criminalize the existing industry. This is deeply disappointing,” Emery said, warning that a government monopoly will not end the black market. “This is doomed to fail,” she said. Canadian Federation of Independent Business president Dan Kelly also panned the “public sector monopoly,” saying “an above-ground, regulated private sector could stay much closer to customers’ preferences and would guard against an underground industry.”
The government is expected to unveil next week new road safety rules to curb impaired driving.
Other jurisdictions that have legalized weed have seen a spike in such offences, so the province will try to pre-empt this using heftier penalties and new testing machines.
As it stands, the only legally available marijuana is prescribed by a medical doctor and comes from 58 producers licensed and inspected by Health Canada.
The product can be delivered only directly to patients’ doors by Canada Post or a courier. With files from Jennifer Pagliaro