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I’ve never been convinced the drive to legalize marijuana was a great idea. The notion that organized crime could be driven out of a lucrative source of income via government intervention strikes me as fanciful: if it worked, Toronto should demand legalized handgun sales in every corner store in order to drive the trade into its grave.

But I must be wrong, because Canadians have consistently told pollsters — and Liberal politicians, evidently — that they favoured the legalization of pot. And now they’re going to get it. That being the case, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has wisely recognized the manifest inadequacy of the sales regime that was about to be put in place, and tossed it aside.

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Under the plan that was about to take effect — devised by the late, unlamented government of Kathleen Wynne — marijuana was to be sold at a limited number of government-run outlets staffed by expensively-maintained members of the public-sector unions. Apparently only union bosses and their members care about the health and safety of the nation’s children, and can be trusted to abide by the law. Unfortunately, the chances of the plan working ranged from slim to none. There were too few outlets and too many incentives for continued participation by crooks and drug dealers.