Pot activist Jodie Emery is slamming the solely through a provincial control board.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars setting up a massive bureaucracy to try and reinvent a wheel that鈥檚 already rolling and spinning quite fine,鈥� Emery told CTV Power Play on Friday. 鈥淚t鈥檚 insane.鈥�
Emery was referring to the storefront marijuana dispensaries that have been popping up across the country. Ontario鈥檚 plan seeks to aggressively shutter such businesses.
鈥淲e鈥檙e instituting a proven and sure manner, which is a controlled measure, and that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e using the LCBO expertise and back office knowledge to initiate something that has been proven to work,鈥� Ontario finance minister Charles Sousa told Power Play, defending his government鈥檚 proposed retail monopoly. Sousa also condemned the country鈥檚 dispensaries.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 pay the appropriate tax, they don鈥檛 contribute to the communities, they don鈥檛 reinvest in education, in healthcare, in drug addiction, in enforcement,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese dispensaries are illegal, they were illegal before, they continue to be illegal now, and we鈥檙e going to make every effort to eliminate and drive down the illicit use of that activity.鈥�
Emery, however, says that Ontario is missing the point when it comes to legalization.
鈥淪top criminalizing the existing industry,鈥� Emery, who co-owns a dispensary chain with her activist husband Marc Emery, said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what legalization is supposed to legalize: the growers and sellers who are peaceful and nonviolent.鈥�
Ontario鈥檚 pot plan, she added, only takes the province鈥檚 immediate interests into account.
鈥淭he government and the police win and the taxpayers and dispensaries and the patients all lose,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his monopoly will ensure there鈥檚 not enough money, there鈥檚 not enough jobs鈥� It鈥檚 going to deny Ontario resident the ability to grow the economy with independent retailers.鈥�
