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For all the handwringing that we were rushing into cannabis legalization, and that there wasn’t enough time to get it right, it turns out that it wasn’t that hard to figure out, after all.

Proponents of legalization have long argued that it makes far more sense to regulate cannabis similar to how we regulate alcohol. All along, then, the model for cannabis retail was staring us right in the face, and the Alberta government deserves credit for not missing the glaringly obvious.

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When tasked with figuring out how to design a system for the distribution and retail of a legal recreational drug, the response very quickly could have and should have been, “Oh, you mean like the system we have for the distribution and retail of that other legal recreational drug?”

We took the scenic route, I suppose, but at least we got to the right place.

The Alberta government announced on Friday the ground rules for how legalized cannabis will be sold. The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission will take the lead on co-ordinating distribution of the product and approving business applications.