It's late afternoon and you receive a text message: "Friends coming for dinner. Please pick up wine." You pull into the neighbourhood liquor store, pick up a bottle of your favourite wine and head home. A familiar scene taking place across the province every day. When you go into your local liquor store, you have confidence knowing you're buying a quality product in a secure environment, with stores conveniently located in every community across the province. B.C.'s public and private liquor stores have a proven track record over many decades, selling controlled alcohol products to adults in a responsible manner, with more than a 90 per cent compliance rate in restricting sales to minors. [continues 517 words]
A proven system is already in place, Stephanie Smith and Damian Kettlewell write. It's late afternoon and you receive a text message: "Please pick up wine." You pull into the neighbourhood liquor store, pick up a bottle and head home. A familiar scene taking place across the province every day. When you go into your local liquor store, you know you are buying a quality product in a secure environment, with stores conveniently located across the province. B.C.'s public and private liquor stores have a proven track record selling controlled alcohol products to adults in a responsible manner, with more than a 90 per cent compliance rate in restricting sales to minors. [continues 535 words]
It's late afternoon and you receive a text message: 'Friends coming for dinner. Please pick up wine.' You pull into the neighbourhood liquor store, pick up a bottle of your favourite wine and head home. A familiar scene taking place across the province every day. When you go into your local liquor store, you have confidence knowing that you're buying a quality product in a secure environment, with stores conveniently located in every community across the province. B.C.'s public and private liquor stores have a proven track record over many decades, selling controlled alcohol products to adults in a responsible manner, with more than a 90 per cent compliance rate in restricting sales to minors. [continues 533 words]
The best system for non-medical marijuana sales already exists Non-medical marijuana will be legally for sale soon and, here in British Columbia, we already have the ideal system in place to ensure that it's sold in the most socially responsible manner. When Justin Trudeau's Liberals took office in October 2015, they did so with a host of mandates from Canadians. Stephen Harper thought that the Liberals' position on legal marijuana would sink them, but in the end it was hardly an issue at all. [continues 436 words]
Love it or hate it, public retailing of non-medical marijuana is coming. With that in mind, the most socially responsible way to sell it in B.C. is through our existing public and private liquor stores. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals took office in October 2015, they did so with a host of mandates from Canadians. Former prime minister Stephen Harper thought the Liberals' position on legal marijuana would sink them, but in the end it was hardly an issue at all. [continues 605 words]
Place for pot: With a strong record of checking identification, existing system is most socially responsible way to sell recreational drug Non-medical marijuana will likely be legalized across Canada in 2016. Legalization was among Justin Trudeau's campaign promises. The new prime minister has directed his minister of justice to create a federal-provincial-territorial process that will lead to the legalization and regulation of non-medical, recreational marijuana across the country. Anticipating these changes, the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union and the B.C. Private Liquor Store Association have formed the Responsible Marijuana Retail Alliance of B.C. We are working together on a straightforward goal: to see legal, non-medical marijuana warehoused and distributed through the existing Liquor Distribution Branch system and sold in B.C. alongside alcohol in liquor stores. [continues 537 words]
Man Worried About Gang Violence Advised To Check Into A Hotel, Hire Security The city of Akron is investigating a police dispatcher who advised a citizen worried about neighborhood gang violence to check into a hotel. The dispatcher also suggested that the frightened man hire an off-duty Akron police officer -- at $25 an hour -- to guard him. And at one point, when the East Akron man asked the dispatcher if she was in the business of protecting the public, she replied in a clipped tone: "No, we're not sir. We are civil servants." [continues 981 words]
Akron Judge Provides Court Dropouts Another Chance To Get Treatment Akron's drug court gives addicts a second chance. If they complete the one-year program, the charge against them is dismissed. Now, the judge who presides over drug court wants to give those who dropped out yet another opportunity to get back on track. Judge Marvin Shapiro has deemed November an amnesty month for drug court dropouts. About 150 people who failed to complete drug court -- and who currently have contempt warrants on file -- will get letters in the mail from Shapiro this week. [continues 297 words]
