KINGSTON – Local LCBO employees who belong to OPSEU are excited and anxious for Kingston to get its own government-run marjiuana store.

"In my 13 years I never thought this would happen, but I’m excited," Teresa Graham, president of OPSEU Local 497, said. Graham spoke with the Whig-Standard Sunday morning, before her first shift as a full-time employee with the LCBO.

"All we’ve been told is that there is one coming to Kingston, it’s going to be a standalone store, not in the LCBO, run by OPSEU members."

On Friday Ontario Minister of Finance Charles Sousa, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Eric Hoskins announced that 40 locations across Ontario will open by next July. The first batch of stores will be located in Barrie, Brampton, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vaughan and Windsor.

Graham said they’ve been told very little about the process and speculated where the store would go in Kingston. Ideally it would be central, but Sousa said during the announcement that the locations would not be located near schools.

"How far away is the distance when they say not near schools? Because where is an LCBO where there is no school?" Graham said pointing out a few locations. "But I can’t wait to find out."

The 907 Princess St. LCBO location is near Loyalist Collegiate and St. Lawrence College. The store at 34 Barrack St. is near Central Public School, King’s Town School, Royal Military College and Queen’s University. The new location on Highway 15 is just down the road from La Salle Secondary School, Saint Martha Catholic School and Ecole Sir John A Macdonald. The furthest west end location of the LCBO, at 1089 Midland Ave., is near Cataraqui Woods Elementary School and Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School.

Social responsibility is an important aspect to what LCBO employees do, said Graham.

"I imagine there will be lots of training with these new stores. We’ve been trained in alcohol because we have to be careful serving the public, to ensure they aren’t intoxicated, we’re very diligent with that," Graham said. "LCBO is all about making sure training is happening. We go through training all the time, we have an iLearn program. Anything new or that we need to be refreshed on, we do through iLearn."

Graham is happy the government has given the responsibility of selling marijuana to the LCBO.

"As an OPSEU member I am so excited they decided to put it into our hands where we’ve already been trained to take care of social responsibility, plus more jobs," Graham said. "More good-paying jobs for people and we definitely need that."

Graham said she’s nervous about how the program will be laid out. She’s curious to know in what form the stores will receive the product, if they’ll also be selling marijuana in the form of food, and if they’ll also sell accessories.

"I don’t know what the training is going to be involved," Graham said. "It’s a huge responsibility with alcohol, so now, to me, it’s going to be an even higher level of responsibility with cannabis. But to put into our hands is good hands because of the training that we get."

The province plans to set up about 150 standalone cannabis stores by 2020.

Ontario was the first province to announce a detailed plan to sell and distribute recreational marijuana, setting the legal age to purchase it at 19. The government introduced its marijuana legislation last week, which contains new penalties for people who are convicted of illegally selling or distributing cannabis, including fines of up to $250,000 and/or jail of up to two years less a day.

scrosier@postmedia.com

Twitter: @StephattheWhig

— with files from The Canadian Press