I think tailoring the legislation and licensing so that only liquor retailers can sell weed (as these guys have proposed) is a fucking monumentally stupid idea. We have an opportunity to create NEW, profitable businesses in communities, lets not hand over sole rights to a bunch of established businesses looking to corner the market early just because "We can check ID's real good". Would we see locally grown pot in Liquor stores? Not likely. Certainly, this would be the easiest way to bring recreational marijuana to BC, but it would cripple us in the long run. The only available pot would be grown by, most likely, cigarette companies (the soon-to-be Budweiser's of weed), as they're the only ones who would be able to provide huge liquor store chains with the quantities of marijuana that they would need to be moving in order to take advantage of their "existing warehouses and distributors". I want to go somewhere where the person selling the product knows about it's benefits and knows where and how it was grown.
Beyond that, I think it's a false equivalent. Weed is not the same as alcohol, we know it's not nearly as deadly and causes far fewer health issues, if any, when compared to alcohol, why continue the false equivalence by selling it next to alcohol?
I hope they plan to adopt the same system as they are using in the states to some degree; the dispensaries buy pot from "legal" growers but everything needs to pass a very rigorous laboratory test so the consumer knows how much active THC and CBD are present as well as an additional screening for any molds, non-organics, pesticides etc. If any nasties show up in the screening they don't buy from the grower and it means with a license you're able to have a level of assurance. Unfortunately I can only assume that the shitty bud that doesn't meet the cut gets passed off to kids and who-knows-who-else, though. If I understand the system correctly down there it's created alot of jobs for "legal" growers (apply for permit, grow good ganja, make money $$$) and ensures a high quality product with a gaurantee of good dope. The gov't also makes extra money on the cost of the permits to grow legally and taxes on the whole shebang as well.
A few years ago my co-worker was buying from a local compassion club after he got a medical note from his doctor; looked like high grade ganja, smelled like high grade ganja but break open a nug and it was all cobwebby and moldy inside. That shit gives you bronchitis and lung infections in a hurry, they just told him it was "harvested a bit late". Hmmmm..gross.
