Canadians, like North Carolinians, say they prefer the safer alternative for marijuana commerce – government control of retailing. The RAND Report for Vermont explains why government stores are safer, and more cautious. This HuffPo article explains why government stores are not impossible in the United States.

Here are the results of the recent poll in Canada, where several provinces allow liquor sales only through government outlets. :

“When asked how legal marijuana should be produced and sold, the largest group opts for a distribution system where large corporate growers only are licensed to grow marijuana and it is sold through government agencies like liquor boards (45%), followed by minorities who would allow private citizens to grow and sell it themselves (16%) and those who expect it to be grown under license and sold at retail, such as convenience stores (12%). One tenth think another system is appropriate (11%), and just fewer either do not support marijuana legalization at all 7%) or think none of these distribution and production systems is preferred (6%). Very few don’t have an opinion on this measure (3%).”

The full Canadian polling results, with cross-tabs, are here.

The 2013 North Carolina poll offered only two choices. When faced with two models for legalization, state monopoly and taxed private sales, 58 percent of voters in North Carolina (where the only retail seller of liquor is the state ABC monopoly) chose monopoly, 19 percent chose private sales, and 23 percent were undecided. The detailed results with cross-tabs, from Public Policy Polling, are here.

Thanks to Steve Rolles of Transform Drug Policy Foundation in the United Kingdom for bringing the Canadian results to my attention.