Yesterday Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford made a statement suggesting cannabis should be privatized rather than be a government run monopoly.

Kathleen Wynne believes that Ford’s suggestion to be “reckless” as she believes cannabis will eventually be sold next to candy bars as she is concerned about the safety of young people.

I’m really not sure what world stores would stock cannabis products next to candy bars but I’m sure stipulations would be in place or simply common sense would dictate that this would never be the case.

While it was the Liberals who will be carrying out legalization nation wide, the Liberal Kathleen Wynne still seems to have some old school thoughts on cannabis or perhaps she was exposed to “Reefer Madness” in her younger years?

I would consider the tobacco, alcohol (select stores) and pharmaceuticals found in convenience stores to be far more harmful than cannabis however in cases such as tobacoo they are not kept next to the candy bars as Wynne would believe them to be stocked.

In my previous article about Doug Ford’s plans to privatize cannabis, I mentioned that cannabis could create healthy competition both online & offline, provide new methods of sales/distribution (example: pool halls, cafes etc.), more products to choose from rather than a government regulated LCBO monopoly.

Currently a poll on the Toronto star website is showing that more than half (currently 54.58%)  of respondents believe it should be privatized, 34.81% believe it should be government controlled and the remaining 10% don’t care.

Kathleen Wynne conflating the privatization of cannabis as “reckless” as selling it next to candy bars to be a safety issue seems like a straw man, a slander and a virtue signal rolled into one bad joint.

Yesterday, Newstalk 1010 had a caller who ran wine tours and spoke about  smaller wineries having issues getting their brands into the LCBO stores which is usually a privilege of larger companies who in some cases end up buying out the struggling smaller wineries.

Perhaps the LCBO model does not create healthy competition for smaller companies to enter the wine or alcohol industry? And  perhaps this model is not one our province would prefer when it comes to deciding how cannabis will be sold and distributed.

The future of cannabis sales in Ontario will rest on who voters will choose to be the new premier of Ontario on June 7, 2018.

We’d like to hear your thoughts, so feel free to drop a comment below.