The end of Prohibition gave birth to the LCBO nearly a century ago.

Now the legalization of marijuana is giving rise to the OCRC: Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation.

That’s about as awkward an acronym — if not anachronism — as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. While today’s LCBO has become a brand in its own right, it’s fair to say the OCRC will never become a household word.

Leery of being branded a bunch of fuddy-duddies — especially when all the critics try to sound so hip — Liberal cabinet ministers went out of their way this week to stress that the title is just a corporate placeholder. The government has promised a proper rebranding when the first 40 outlets open with a less lumbering name next July 1.

That’s when cannabis consumption goes legitimate across Canada. Yet after a year of provincial preparations, and barely eight months until people start lighting up legally, we remain in the dark on key questions.

It’s not just the future name (surely not The Weed Store) but the storefront locations that remain a mystery. We got a hint Friday when the government announced the first 14 cities selected for retail recreational marijuana (unsurprisingly, the GTA made the cut, but no specific GPS co-ordinates yet for readers to search on Google Maps).

By 2020 Ontario will have 150 rebranded OCRC outlets open for business. Despite the impatience of pot smokers, the government’s go-slow rollout looks more realistic when you consider some of the challenges.

How do you square commercial demand with social concerns, notably nearby schools? For example, Toronto’s Yonge and Eglinton area is a major shopping and transit hub that cries out for a storefront, but it’s also surrounded by several schools where students hang out. Good luck to politicians trying to reconcile pot smokers with parents, not just in big cities like Toronto — with about 700 elementary schools and 140 high schools — but in rural redoubts.

For all the clamour from critics who dream of cannabis in every corner store, people tend to overlook the online component of the OCRC, enabling customers to place orders for delivery anywhere in the province. Not quite Amazon (delivery drivers will require ID with proof of age, and won’t leave packages at the door), but better than bricks and mortar in some ways. After all, retail outlets will require you to line up at a counter — no self-serve aisles for browsing — just like the old days when drinkers had to submit their booze orders to LCBO staff (and not unlike today’s illegal drug dispensaries, soon to be shuttered).

By sticking to 19 as the minimum age for marijuana, in line with the provincial drinking age, Ontario is departing from the federal minimum of 18. But with all the evidence of cannabis affecting the developing brains of young people, it only makes sense to avoid giving kids a head start with pot over booze.

Recreational users of all ages will be confined to their own homes, which seems only fair given the effects of second-hand smoke and marijuana odours. Legalization will embolden some to light up in public, generating a future flashpoint not unlike the effects of cigar-smoking and pipe-smoking in the past. Neighbours living in apartments, condos and semi-detached homes will have to figure out a modus vivendi.

The biggest uncertainty lies on our roads. After decades of research we know how alcohol impairs drivers, yet we are only beginning to understand the (varying) impacts of cannabis on consumers. The government has increased punishments for driving while under the influence, yet there will assuredly be accidents and heartbreaks ahead.

We need to keep the problems in perspective, by bearing in mind the legacy of prohibition. As cannabis takes root, let’s not forget how it was driven underground in the past.

Underage kids bought dope of questionable quality from pushers close to their schools, smokers drove their neighbours crazy, and people drove while stoned. The government points to a roadside survey in 2014 showing more than twice as many drivers tested positive for drugs compared to those under the influence of alcohol.

Drug use was always there, we were just less aware. No one knows how much cannabis consumption will increase next year, but we do know that legalization offers an opportunity to educate and regulate in a way we never could under prohibition and criminalization.

It’s easy for hipster pundits to mock Ontario’s go-slow approach, caricaturing it as a hang-up from Loyalist and Victorian times. And it will be tempting for opponents of legalization to say we told you so, nostalgic for the status quo ante.

Recent polling shows public opinion more or less supports an LCBO-OCRC model controlled by government. And recognizes that the time has come for people to roll their own joints legally.

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That doesn’t mean we need to roll out retail stores in record time.

Martin Regg Cohn’s political column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca, Twitter: @reggcohn