Regardless of whether you’re for or against making cannabis legal in Canada, it’s going to happen on Oct. 17.

So it bears repeating that provincial governments must create clear, sensible, enforceable legislation that gives consumers access to pot while curbing the black market and keeping it out of the hands of underage kids.

For the most part, Ontario Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Finance Minister Vic Fedeli got it right last week when they introduced the Ford government’s framework for cannabis retailing.

As it stands, the legislation sensibly treats the smoking of cannabis like tobacco by aligning consumption of pot with the Smoke-Free Ontario Act.

That means people won’t be allowed to toke up in indoor public spaces, but will be permitted to smoke pot outdoors in places where tobacco smoking is permitted.

That means, for example, that smoking in parks will be OK. But smoking near children’s playgrounds — where tobacco smoking is already banned — will not.

Anything else would have been unenforceable by police, who would have been put in a position of trying to distinguish if someone was smoking a cigarette or a joint on the street or in a public park. It would also create the odd situation in which smoking pot was legal in principle, but illegal everywhere but in your own home (unless, of course, you’re a renter whose landlord objects).

The government was also right not to place an overall ceiling on the number of stores allowed to get provincial licences if their applications make the grade (although regulations may put a limit on the number of outlets in a particular municipality). After all, the idea is to make legal pot shops accessible so users don’t turn to the black market.

Now Ontarians can expect to see 500 to 1,000 private pot shops opening in the province after April 1, in comparison to the meagre 40 government-run shops the former Liberal government had planned for the first year. (Ontario is one of six provinces planning to allow private stores to sell marijuana products.)

That’s a much better strategy to shut down the black market. The Liberals’ plan would have made it hard to find legal marijuana, encouraging buyers to keep patronizing their local illegal dealer.

Still, the legislation has some shortcomings that the Progressive Conservative government should rethink.

One is allowing municipalities to decide whether they can ban legal cannabis stores within their borders entirely. The legislation gives them until Jan. 22 to decide whether to do that.

This will only encourage the proliferation of black market sellers in communities that choose to opt out, undercutting one of Ottawa’s primary goals in making cannabis legal.

The legislation also allows the government to set regulations on “buffer zones” near schools.

This is not a new idea. The former Wynne government ordered that school boards be given a say in where the then-planned provincial marijuana stores were going to be located after the announcement last April that Toronto’s first outlet would have been located 450 metres away from a school was met with outrage.

That would have made it very difficult to set up legal pot shops in some areas. In Toronto, for example, data compiled by the Star indicates that more than half the city is within 450 metres of a school. The Ford government should not repeat that mistake; if it establishes buffer zones around schools they should be a lot smaller.

No one wants to encourage young people to buy or smoke pot. But unlike illegal dope dealers, who will sell to anyone with enough money, legal retailers will be forbidden to sell their products to anyone under the age of 19, at the risk of losing their livelihood. Further, the stores will be designed so that kids can’t even see inside them.

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Finally, the legislation will allow municipalities to restrict smoking in outdoor spaces, including parks, if they choose. As Liberal MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers said, this will lead to a confusing “patchwork” of different laws. That isn’t helpful.

There’s still time to tweak the cannabis framework legislation before pot becomes legal on Oct. 17. The Ford government should do so.

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