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The National’s ecumenically empathetic Nick Purdon recently did a story on one of Saskatoon’s lucky seven, 23-year-old Cierra Sieben-Chuback, a new graduate from business school. She seems bright and charming but her main connection with marijuana to date has been using it to cope with the rheumatoid arthritis she was diagnosed with two years ago. Her father runs an auto body shop so his business experience will be helpful to her — even if car improvements and consumer narcotics aren’t very similar. But is this any way to establish a market?

Photo by LARS HAGBERG/AFP/Getty Images

I’ve been a lifetime consumer of Big Macs. Suppose in a not unprecedented fit of lunacy the government of Quebec decided to limit the number of fast-food restaurants in Montreal and award operating licences by lottery. I’m a lifetime academic but I do have relatives in business who could help me with the basics. It might produce a fun news story but would it really make sense for me to win one of the precious licences? Or for there to be licences in the first place or a limit on their number?

No, no and no! Make suppliers comply with health and safety rules for their product but then get out of the way. Let anyone who wants to try to make a go of selling marijuana (165 applied in Saskatoon). The market will decide who’s good at it, who’s not and how many outlets are needed. If you’re biased against “the market,” understand that in this case it simply means Saskatooners.

The liquor and gaming commission says it will reassess over time and issue extra licences if needed. No, it won’t! The history of taxi licensing says current licence-holders, including Ms. Sieben-Chuback, will lobby fiercely and ultimately successfully against any dilution in the value of their licence.

It’s 2018. We know how these things work. Why aren’t we being smarter?