In my high school days, we certainly didn’t have government-run cannabis stores located within 450 metres of our schools. Back then, our “pot shops” (such as they were) could be found right in the hallways of the school building. Which is to say, you scored a joint from a fellow student, generally one with older siblings who knew a guy who knew a guy. I don’t recall these unlicensed pharmacists asking for ID, but then generally they had a good handle on your name and age and all that from sitting beside you in homeroom. This wasn’t a particularly secret phenomenon. When I was in Grade 8, our teacher would joke of the local high school that many of us were expected to graduate to that if, in the hallway, you said “Hi” to a fellow student, their typical response would be, “You too?”Anyhow, you would think that if our aim is generally to keep marijuana out of the hands (and lungs) of children and teenagers, provincially operated and staffed drug stores would be seen as an improvement over the “Psst, wanna buy a joint?” status quo that has reigned for decades. But no. When the location of Toronto’s first Ontario Cannabis Store was announced, parents and school board administrators were vocally angry that it would be located within half a kilometre of an elementary school. As a result of the outrage, Premier Kathleen Wynne has announced that school boards should be consulted about the locations of the stores so they won’t be where kids go “at lunchtime” or “after school.” Read more:Wynne questioned putting Ontario pot shops near schools. In Toronto, that will be hard to avoidEditorial | There’s no need to panic over pot shop locationsMajority of Canadian pot users get it from illicit sources, report saysThe problem, as illustrated on a map that ran on the front page of the Star on Wednesday, is that more or less every populated area of the city is within half a ...
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