What’s the issue?

Dear Editor:

RE: Council says no to cannabis stores, May 30.

The main concern of the members who voted no seems to be that the municipality can control the location and number of retail stores.​ I fail to see why this is so important​.

A cannabis store is like any other store: people go in, buy what they want and leave. They do not hang around outside and “party” if that is what concerns the council members. 

There are regulations in place that prohibit smoking in public and the Cannabis License Act already mandates that cannabis stores cannot be located within 150 metres of a school. 

So why is location an issue? 

Concerning the number of retail stores there ​may be: this would be controlled by our​ time-honoured system of supply and demand. This is the accepted way for legal business to operate and how could the council take issue with that?

Peter Kocal,
Guelph