Abdeali Saherwala | Staff Writer
Featured image: The LCBO will oversee the distribution of recreational marijuana in Ontario, and plans to have 150 outlets by 2020. | Audrey Steen Haut
Across Ontario, 14 municipalities plan to establish recreational marijuana stores handled by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), including Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, and Hamilton.
While the exact locations of these stores have yet to be decided, cities such as Barrie, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Windsor will be amongst the first legal Canadian locations to possess their own LCBO-run recreational marijuana stores.
The current plan for Ontario’s government is to establish 40 stores, with more to open in July 2018, and increase to 150 stores by 2020. The LCBO has established the new Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, which has approved the 40 stores and will oversee any matters related to the LCBO-run recreational marijuana industry.
“It’s about time. It’s less harmful than alcohol and tobacco—plus, it can have several health benefits. Canada is 1.3 trillion dollars in debt, so something has to pay for those expenses. This takes money out of the pockets of gangsters, drug dealers, and others of the like, instead putting it into those of the province,” says George Niculescu, a third-year Political Science student.
About 75 dispensaries selling marijuana in Toronto are now classified as illegal businesses, and therefore will have to close down.
Under The Cannabis Act, the penalization for a corporate owner running an individual dispensary is now a $1,000,000 fine, and $100,000 for individuals, along with a jail sentence of up to two years.
While discussing the plan, supporters note the impact of marijuana on one’s brain, and its relation to the legal age of consumption, which in Ontario, is 19 years old.
“Truthfully, I too feel that it’s about time marijuana is legalized. I’m happy that there is an age restriction on who can purchase it, because even though weed isn’t as dangerous as other drugs, if not used wisely, it can take a huge toll on one’s brain development and actions,” says Deniesha Jane Cabauatan, a second-year Human Resources Management student.
“It will definitely boost the economy and reduce crime and prison sentencing, but scientific studies have shown that weed is harmful to those under 25 years old, whose brains are still in development. I believe the age limit is too low,” says Nikie Martin, a second-year Cinema & Media Studies student.
While a central argument for marijuana is in promotion of its medical properties, the Food and Drug Administration’s guidelines for a drug’s approval require certain factors be established, including dose quantity, frequency, duration, and combined use with other medicines. Until this past August, none of these had been determined for marijuana.
Further, the recreational use and guidelines for marijuana will be regulated and prohibited in all public spaces, workplaces, and vehicles in order to ensure road safety, as research suggests that marijuana use affects coordination, decision-making, and perception.
Marijuana has been the most prevalent illegal drug detected in impaired and fatally-injured drivers and the victims of motor-vehicle crashes.
At most, four cannabis plants can be grown in private residences for personal consumption, and stiffer penalties will be placed on drivers under the influence.
“It’s not hard to get marijuana anymore. It’s the easiest thing. If anything, with it being legalized, weed dealers are the ones who are at risk of losing profit from their self-made business,” says Ariel Wright, a first-year Kinesiology student.
These stores’ opponents are arguing that the government will benefit from the taxation of marijuana, and the penalization of individually run dispensaries will increase wait times to attain the drug. Further, they conclude that, with the plan to reduce the price competition for marijuana, it would allow for the government to charge any price they choose.
“This is going to be pure chaos,” adds Connor Logan, a fourth-year Philosophy student.
“People are not going to drive for half an hour only to later wait in a massive line-up, when they can simply buy it off of someone else much faster. They are going to be shutting down more dispensaries than they will be opening, and marijuana will become less accessible.”
Advocates of this plan, on the other hand, debate that providing legal marijuana will generate revenue for the Ontario government, allowing for the continuation of public programming, and will prevent criminals from obtaining such revenue. They propose for marijuana to be decriminalized, as well as for those who have been jailed for distributing or consuming the drug, prior to this new legislation, to be legally pardoned.
“I think that if the government is going to legalize marijuana, anyone who has a criminal record because of it should receive a pardon. They need to decriminalize it,” adds Wright.
As of now, with marijuana stores spreading across several Ontario cities, these new, soon-to-be implemented laws will oversee the market in an effort to ensure safe use across the province.
