Hey - who knew I had to leave the comments open...

Dammit, I'm not ready! Stop talking about it! I'm getting...ideas!! My head... it's spinning... STOP THE MADNESS!

"Do you have to be a libertarian wing nut to pause and shake your head?"

Well . . . yes, of course. Only lunatic libertarian wingnuts think that people could possibly be trusted with this kind of wild-eyed, dangerous responsibility. Try to think of half-a-dozen folks you'd trust with that kind of power over their own actions. See? You can maybe think of three . . . four at most . . . everyone else is too immature to be trusted.

Trust the government. They know what's best for everyone. Just ask 'em. They'll tell you. Anyone saying something different is probably some kind of American-wannabe.

A couple of years back, for about a year, Canada had no pot law. The potheads barely noticed. Neither did the rest of us.

I can now buy beer at government prices at a little store a mere four blocks away. It is open 11-11 three nights a week. It sells whiskey and, I fear, limes. It is practically a grocery store.

Be prepared to read about the breakdown of law and order in the lovely little municipality of Oak Bay...where they roll up the sidewalks a half hour early just because they can. (And to spite those rather loose people in Victoria proper.)

I blame the limes.

Call me crazy, but I would prefer more restrictions. I would like the govt. to eliminate private sales, which the beer store currently is, and control both it and the LCBO equally. I would like fixed prices to keep kids and winos from picking up a $4 bottle of wine and the other security that a private owner will be loathe to provide (profit blinds one to so many eithics).

And I don't think we need as a province, 24/7 access to booze. I mean seriously, if you are having people over on Sunday afternoon, do you really need to be able to buy coolers or beer at 10 am that day or be able to pick up a bottle of rum at 2 am?

You are crazy. I don't think people should have access to cars 24 hours a day. That is, however, as dumb.

Ethics?? What ethics? There's nothing inherently immoral about altering your perceptions via ingestion... unless I missed something in philosophy class that you didn't?

Kids in Europe are served booze as soon as they're old enough to get their money on the counter, and (with the notable exception of England, where alcoholism is a national past-time) it's not hurting anybody at all over there. Booze was more of a problem during prohibition than it ever has been since.

Speaking personally, I did all my drinking at 16 - pre drivers' license - and got it out of my system. The stores closing early simply meant I had to go early to get somebody to boot for me. And, on the other side of the coin, whose business is it when an adult chooses to buy their drugs?

I still do not understand why this is a fight that Mike Harris turtled on.

He came to power in 1995 with a promise to privatize the LCBO. Unlike many of his other policies, this was one with unassailable logic behind it -- there is no natural monopoly for alcohol.

I'm ready for boutique beer stores.

***

But then, I'm such a libertarian nut that I think that I'm ready to eat hamburgers cooked medium at my local pub, too...

"ethics" in that if a small selection of corner store owners can make an extra $500 in booze sales a week by selling to 16 year olds, they will, regardless of the law. They did that with cigarettes and they did with hardcore pr0n and in the 80s.

And there may be nothing "inherently immoral" about having a few beer, or more, it just happens to be a public safety issue when some drunk dough-head can wander into a corner store with $5, bully some 17 year old kid into letting him buy cheap imported fortified wine, hop into a car and slam into a busload of orphans and nuns. Sorry, but in our society, public safety trumps perceived personal "rights".

All libertarians who feel otherwise can go get organized for a change, form a political party thats all about legalizing pot and privatizing liquor sales, then find a way to convince the majority of Canadians, who for the most part like just fine the way things are, to elect them into power then go about changing the rules. Until then, :P and two pair of pants :P :b

(ducks in to have a look; sees it's already insane without my help now; ducks out)

A feck it: <i>"Ontario Craft Brewers strongly believe that Ontario beer consumers are not well served by the restriction of The Beer Store ownership to only three competitors," the craft brewers' president John Hay said yesterday.

The brewers say The Beer Store is a foreign-owned monopoly that serves mainly the interests of the three big multinational beer companies that control it through their ownership stakes in Molson, Labatt and Sleeman.</i>

If I remember correctly, there's a $25K per SKU per Beer Store stocking fee, which helps make sure the big guys have a solid competitive advantage. I'm not sure if that will help out the nuns & orphans or not.

Please note, if not made clear enough, I would rather the "beer store" was run like the LCBO by happy carefree civil servants of an arms length crown corporation. The only reason I ever ever go to the BS is when I cannot get my Tetleys Pub Ale at the local LCB Outlet.

I say we do Sean one better and require written prescriptions from doctors certifying that you're mature enough to drink. Let the pharmacists handle it from there.