Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne came out in favour of using the province’s liquor stores to sell cannabis products, once they become legalized by the federal government.
“It makes sense to me that the liquor distribution mechanism that we have in place — the LCBO — is very well suited to putting in place the social responsibility aspects that would need to be in place,” Wynne said. “Obviously, I don’t know what the timeline is with the federal government but it seems to me that using that distribution network of the LCBO … I think that that makes a lot of sense.”
The provincial government owns and operates over 600 LCBO locations across Ontario.
In late November, leader of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Warren Thomas said the LCBO is perfectly suited to sell legal cannabis.
“There would not be any need to reinvent the wheel,” Thomas said “For one thing they have the social responsibility part covered — they do age checks, they do refusals if somebody’s intoxicated.”