LCBO safest place to sell pot: OPSEU president

Legalization needs strong regulation

With legal marijuana inching closer to reality, one Ontario union has suggested the LCBO as choice retailer.

President of the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union, Warren “Smokey” Thomas said yesterday that the LCBO would be the safest place to sell retail marijuana if Ottawa moves forward with plans to legalize the drug.

“If legalization happens, marijuana must be a controlled substance, and no one has more experience retailing controlled substances than the workers at the LCBO,” Thomas said. “The LCBO has a solid track record of responsibly selling alcohol and would bring the same service standard to marijuana.”

The provincial liquor board already has a framework in place that could be applied to the regulation of marijuana, he said. That includes secure warehouses, distribution systems and laboratories, where more than 500,000 quality tests are conducted on alcohol products per year.

“All the infrastructure is in place for a smooth transition to a safer system. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” Thomas said, adding that, “If we let industry write the rules, we won’t make any headway in reducing the social harm from marijuana.”

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