Dear editor,
Keith Baldrey’s column on cannabis and liquor sales unfortunately fails to address the real health and safety issues around non-medical cannabis sales (‘Are marijuana and liquor a bad fit?’ January 8, 2018).
Drs. Kendall and Lem state in their op-ed referenced by Baldrey, that co-locating alcohol and cannabis “might be seen to condone and encourage co-use” which would “most likely drive rates of cannabis use substantially higher,” without any supporting evidence.
The doctors also fail to acknowledge that limiting public access to legal cannabis will encourage a continued black market for an untested, unregulated product.
The members of the Responsible Marijuana Retail Alliance of B.C. (RMARBC) fully support an evidence-based public health policy approach that discourages the co-use of alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.
As part of this process, we point to a federal task force submission by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, which clearly states that “there is no evidence as to whether selling cannabis and alcohol alongside one another encourages or facilitates co-use.”
The CAMH submission also supports the distribution of non-medical cannabis by “provincial liquor boards.” Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are already using liquor boards to distribute and retail cannabis.
In the United States, the first consumer research on cannabis and alcohol sales is emerging. A 2017 study, Helping Settle the Marijuana and Alcohol Debate, which tracks alcohol sales before and after the introduction of legalized marijuana, shows an average 15 per cent decrease in alcohol sales after legal cannabis was available. The study concludes that “marijuana and alcohol are strong substitutes.”
Keeping the sale of controlled substances like alcohol and cannabis within the secure, regulated environment of B.C. liquor stores helps control misuse of the products and increases government’s ability to track sales and affect health outcomes with on-site public education campaigns.
Stephanie Smith, president, B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union
Jeff Guinard, CEO, Association of Beverage Licensees B.C.
