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But that’s no reason not to let them try. There would surely be a benefit for many people suffering from debilitating pain to fill their prescriptions at a neighbourhood pharmacy, rather than have to wait for a licensed producer to deliver the medication, as is currently the case. If the pharmacies were able to compete with existing medical marijuana providers and dispensaries, as well as any new distributors that spring up, consumers be able to decide what works best for them.

But we all know this is not what the drugstore chains are saying when they say they would be well suited to distribute cannabis. Anyone who has ever filled a prescription in this country knows that pharmacies are not very efficient at selling things, as the system largely seems to be set up to ensure doctors have a steady supply of patients and drug companies can charge insurance companies, rather than bill people directly. This is surely the system pharmacies want to see continue as medicinal, and recreational, cannabis becomes more accessible — i.e., one designed specifically to limit competition.

Pharmacies make some sense … if you want to wait 10 minutes while someone puts a sticker on the dime bag sitting on the shelf.

And we all know that Wynne doesn’t think the LCBO should be distributing cannabis because of its ability to compete with Joe’s Pot Shop or 7-Eleven. She wants it to have a monopoly like it does with liquor sales — small businesses and consumers be damned.

Yet if our experience with alcohol has taught us anything, it’s that restricting sales to a government-run monopoly or a corporate oligopoly is not in consumers’ best interests. Indeed, the only reason provinces have so much control over alcohol sales is because of the piecemeal system of prohibition we had, in which some provinces allowed alcohol sales, but other did not. It’s a historical aberration we would be wise not to repeat.