The vice index

So while we all wait for Justin Trudeau to legalize the stuff, Premier Kathleen Wynne thinks it’s worth investigating whether the LCBO should control the sale of pot.

I suppose it’s not too far-fetched an idea. Maybe the LCBO has some in-house expertise (“I’m promoting you, Hastings, because of that Bob Marley T-shirt you wear to work”); or maybe it could transfer its wine expertise into the draftng of new tasting notes (“A long lasting and deep high, best paired with taco chips”).

But in order to determine whether the LCBO is the right outfit to be put in charge of selling pot, we need a little context. Take beer. It’s sold at The Beer Store, owned privately. Small quantity sales are opening up in grocery stores and LCBO outlets. But large quanties? No sir. And selling any beer at convenience stores is out of the question. Take tobacco. It’s sold mainly at licensed convenience stores. You can’t buy it at the LCBO or The Beer Store. Take spirits. Only available at the LCBO, and not about to change any time soon. Take wine. No, let’s not, it’s much too complicated. Take pot. Currently sold through mail order and storefront dispensaries, with a prescription, and for medicinal purposes.

Now is pot more like beer or tobacco? Does it depend on whether the beer is for medicinal purposes too? If the government thinks alcohol is so bad for us that the franchise should belong to the LCBO, why does it put out glossy brochures every month encouraging us to drink; when at the same time you daren’t advertise a tobacco product— and you have to sell it in a package that says ‘smoking kills babies.’

Let’s try a broader perspective. Take sugar, salt, fat and processed meats. Respected health authorities have waved flags, yet you and I can waltz into a grocery store and buy pop, pretzels, cream and beef jerky in unlimited quantities (unless they’re on special, in which case there’s a perfectly logical per-customer limit). Take gambling. If we want to ‘gamble,’ we can only do so at a licensed casino or slots; yet if we want to ‘purchase a lottery ticket’ or six or seven, we can just go to our corner store and drop the same amount as we might at the casino.

So the search for context, after all that, leaves us no wiser. Yet if you and I were designing a system to regulate access to these potentially harmful substances, would we not be, well, more systematic about it? Would we not do some sort of social impact and cost/benefit analysis, come up with a rating of how much risk a particular product poses, and then control access to it accordingly? Alcohol, for instance, might be given an overall vice index rating of, say, seven out of 10. That might compare to a five, say, for pot and a six, say, for cigarettes. And a cutoff level might be established so that the government would not contol the sale of anything with a vice index lower than four; thereby sparing, say, beef jerky from the regulator’s thumb.

Of course, if you and I were designing a system, we would quickly be asking each other whether we were trying to put into place a ‘nanny state’ philosophy or a ‘libertarian’ philosophy. And we might find ourselves wanting to do a little more research into the effect of the vice-indexed substances, individual by individual. For instance, while the LCBO doesn’t sell to the obviously drunk, it will sell to the known alcoholic. Why should that person’s propensity to overconsume affect the product’s vice index rating for me?

If we wanted to be really comprehensive in the development of our vice index, we’d also look beyond substances to lifestyle. What if Ms. A wants to take up water skiing? Will she be taking lessons? The risk of injury is quite high, especially at her age, and the carbon footprint is heavy compared to, say, hiking in the woods. Perhaps she’d present a lesser risk of harm to herself and society if she were encouraged to stay home and smoke pot. And what if Mr. B plans to buy himself a new pickup truck? Can he afford it? How badly does he need it? Will he drive it to the casino to feed his gambling habit? Perhaps trying to apply questions like these will be good practice as we move to our Paris-inspired low carbon lifestyles.

So please, take your time, Mr. Trudeau: Ms. Wynne needs every free day she can find to develop a vice index—and a set of coherent policies with which to administer it.

dsimmonds@wellingtontimes.ca