dbd33

I think the devil is in the detail. At the moment weed is freely available, quality varies and a specific strain may not always be in stock but anyone who fancies a joint can pop out and get one. Government regulation, as suggested by this tweet, is going to limit availability, ostensibly to protect minors. That's the purpose of the liquor control boards and they're a massive pain in the arse with their limited opening hours, high prices, officious staff and bizarre stocking policies. I'm for legalization and agree with Souixsie about drunks vs. stoners but never expect intervention by any level of Canadian government to improve life for the governed.

DigitalGhost

The thing is that the Liquor laws would make perfect sense if areas like Quebec were constantly overflowing with drunken arseholes off their faces on supermarket beer and wine but they're not. There is evidence within Canada itself to suggest that the draconion alcohol laws in place throughout most of the country are entirely unnecessary.

Gordon Barlow

When I lived in Canada in the mid-1960s, Toronto had "wet wards" and "dry wards". In the latter, it was illegal to drink alcohol in public view. Friends of mine were interviewed and warned by the Police (though not arrested, as far as I can recall) one summer day, for drinking beer while sitting on the window ledge of their rented house - on the second floor, above a mini-balcony, in full view of passers-by!!! Shock,horror!

Another time, soon after I had arrived in TO, I was drinking at a table with new friends after work, when I stood up to take my glass across to another table. A workmate grabbed my shoulder and pulled me roughly down back into my chair, explaining that it was illegal to stand up with a glass in hand. "As soon as you stood up, I saw the bouncer step away from his place by the wall", he said. The law required that I call the bouncer across to carry my glass for me to the other table. That sounds unreal, but it's a true story. Please tell me it's not still like that!

DigitalGhost

It's definitely not still like that.

The laws are certainly draconion compared to the UK or even parts of America but it's not that bad in Ontario at least anymore.

caretaker

I remember having to get the server to move a drink, as well as no singing or dancing in the bar. The last beer parlour I was in that had separate entrances and rooms for Gentlemen and Ladies & Escorts was the Marina Hotel in Thunder Bay in about 1973 or 74.

Gordon Barlow

Oh well, it's nice to be able to say with pride, "I was there, wayyy back when!"

Gordon Barlow

All this is a bit off-topic for a thread on cannabis, so to drag it back on topic I will speculate that in the new era there will be "puff parlours", where customers have to call up a server to carry their spliffs when changing tables. Does that sound about right?

dbd33

You still see that if you want to walk from the patio to the inside of the bar, typically the front step of the bar isn't licensed. That said, the era of each ordering a tray of 4 ounce beers has passed.

dbd33

The Canada tavern in the Moss Park area of Toronto still had them when they knocked it down, less than ten years ago. Some areas that were historically dry, High Park, for example, are still short of bars though it's been legal to open one for some years. Still, even in Canadian terms, High Park is not an area one chooses for fun.

dave_j

It's a sad world where big money sees even more big money to be made by peddling drugs to the eager masses.
Yes, yes, I know that it's been going on for, well a long time, that's why I brew my own beer and wine.. but two wrongs don't make a right.
So we have a product that many think frees themselves from an everyday reality that doesn't do it for them and a clutch of financial and political opportunists who'll exploit any disatisfaction with real life as a means to accumulate even more wealth and political advantage.
Q. Is this legalisation a logical expression of the public will and political promise or...
Is this legalisation a realisation that there's money to be made from the weak minded and a pliable government or..
Has the political will bowed a little too low before a willing electorate in the expectation of receiving political benefit?

Gordon Barlow

But Dave, if you brew your own beer and thus deny "big money" some profit, why shouldn't I grow my own hashish and deny "big money" some? You're correct that two wrongs don't make a right, but one wrong doesn't make a right, either. Is one of the wrongs (drinking a liquid intoxicant) somehow less wrong than the other (smoking a non-liquid intoxicant)? I think you're indulging in some "special pleading", here! It's not logical.

When you say, "we have a product that many think frees them from an everyday reality that doesn't do it for them", do you mean booze or the weed? What about opioids? When people are in severe pain, shouldn't they be given morphine to free them from an everyday reality that doesn't do it for them? If so, why not cannabis?

Oakvillian

Since when (and where) is cannabis a "dangerous narcotic?" In most legislative frameworks that I'm aware of, it is viewed as neither of those things.

Of course, the alcohol laws are ridiculous. But that doesn't mean that cannabis legalization, by its mere existence, is also ridiculous

Siouxie

Yes you can!
https://www.ontario.ca/page/beer-win...grocery-stores
Full list of Ontario grocery stores that sell beer | CBC News


I'll second the comment about weed not being a dangerous narcotic. It's not crack cocaine for goodness sake!

dbd33

I don't think you can actually do it. I saw a six pack of swill in Loblaws which I thought ideal for shoving up the arse of dead chickens and took it to the cash register where they didn't know how to sell it to me and added it to a pile of cans not sold to other people. This after joining the long queue at the one check out where the cashier is allowed to fail to sell people beer. Thus far, buying beer in the supermarket is more hassle than going to the LCBO for beer.

dave_j

I make no claim to be logical, neither do I claim to be right or to know it all. I'm tolerant, I have no interest into who has faith or who has unusual personal habits.
But I do have an interest in how political decision making will potentially affect me or those I'd rather not have to bury.
We know that drunks kill people. Personal experience tells me, because I've experienced it, that drunks don't think clearly and can't make rational decisions and whilst they may think they can drive safely they can't. I drink but I now never drive having used alcohol.
Cannabis, like alcohol, changes the way people interpret the world around them and I question the political expediency that has resulted in legalising cannabis use.
I fully accept that cannabis use is widespread and is an accepted aspect of canadian life but it worries me that politicians have apparently unlocked this particular locked box and thrown away the key and I question the reasoning behind it.
If I could rely on the average canadian to indulge and not to drive then I'd welcome legalisation, but I'm afraid I can't convince myself that this'll happen.
What legalisation will mean for me personally is that I'll be even more careful when driving my grandchildren, knowing that the truck tailgating me or the car approaching the upcoming intersection will very likely be driven by a cannabis user who may not see the world as it actually exists.
Two days ago my daughter followed a truck that turned over on a bend and crushed an unlucky car coming the other way.. and the driver of this truck was sober. The roads are dangerous enough without adding risk on risk.