The Ontario Public Health Association … cites multiple studies showing that increases in the number of places where alcohol can be bought in Ontario, and in other jurisdictions, have already led to more consumption and more of the harms that come with it, such as suicides, drunk driving, emergency-room visits and higher rates of cancer.
I enjoy booze, but I like that it’s hard to get. I don’t need any more encouragement to mess up my liver.
Does anyone not want this?
I don’t not want this, but I recognize how little a factor this plays into my overall life satisfaction. Sure, it would be neat for people who consume alcohol to be able to buy it in convenience stores, but this policy, along with this government’s pattern of prioritizing alcohol (1, 2, 3, 4) related policies is more than deeply concerning, when it’s so painfully obvious we need to be improving our housing, healthcare, and education systems. We have more pressing areas that need addressing that affect more than just the people who drink, so it’s honestly bewildering to see the conservatives focusing so much of their time on what amounts to only minor conveniences for people who consume alcohol, while the wallets of those Doug Ford is close with get major payouts.
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I felt our old system before sales in grocery stores was a good balance of availability and control. I don’t drink much now, but I used to be a heavy drinker and didn’t have any issues. Even in rural areas, there’s often a “separate” Beer Store/LCBO attached to local convenience store. I’m not advocating for prohibition or anything, I just see this as making the system worse as I’ve already seen through grocery store sales. Also:
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I’ve lived in ON(duh), QC, NS, MB, and AB and the provinces with centrally controlled liquor sales also had better selection. The LCBO is one of the world’s biggest alcohol purchasers and with less sales they could lose this purchasing power.
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While some might say this is removing a government monopoly, I see it as (due to the limited selection) consolidating power behind the biggest brewers. You see very few small wineries or breweries in groceries stores and I suspect you’ll see even less microbreweries in convenience stores.
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This feels like trading government revenue (which in turn pays for the healthcare needed due to alcohol use) and good paying jobs for private revenue and minimum wage jobs.
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While not perfect, the employees at the Beer Store/LCBO seem well trained and usually do a pretty good job of handling drunks and underagers. I’ve seen less ideal handling of these situations in the limited time groceries stores have been able to sell.
It’s sad that our regulations about alcohol sales are so restrictive, but it’s unfortunately very necessary because of how our built environment exists. It’s correlated with drunk driving deaths because there’s not enough ways to get home that aren’t driving. We can’t really fix one without the other. I’d love to have a European-style picnic with wine I bought at the store on the corner, but that means at least 10% of the people on the road are going to be drunk driving at any given time which isn’t ideal.
There’s also the increased suicides, emergency room visits, and cancer rates.
Access to alcohol is fine, but it shouldn’t be encouraged. A little bit of friction discourages access, and helps people moderate themselves.
I’ve lived in quite a few places in my life and those that have the worst alcohol problems are the most restrictive ones. Restricting means more binge drinking, there’s a lot of empirical evidence showing that.
Perhaps it’s high time our government stops treating us like irresponsible children.
“I don’t like feeling like someone is treating me like a child,” is both an unhelpful way of interpreting the situation – no one is treating anyone like a child, they are treating them like human beings who are subject to addiction and lapses in judgement while intoxicated (so much worse than children) – and also a really poor and selfish reason to inflict the negative effects that do correlate with increased availability on other people.
The relationship probably isn’t causal!! How do you know that it isn’t simply the case that the places with the worst alcohol problems adopt the strongest restrictions?
This means we’d actually have to make our justice system actually punish drunk and careless driving. The best way to commit murder in Canada is with a car, you will get out in a couple of years!
Yo can buy wine and beer in corner stores and drink in parks all over Quebec and it’s not a problem. Ontario isn’t different, except for the persistent smell of prohibition (which started in Ontario!).
They said the same thing about weed stores and there hasn’t been any increase in accidents.
Those who want to drink will drink, making it more accessible won’t change that. It’ll be nice not having to drive multiple kilometres to get a sixpack.
I lived in an EU city in the mid/late 00s, and one of the nicest things was never having to worry about who was the DD. It wasn’t a big city, and quite compact. Walk 15 minutes and multiple pub and restaurant options. The equivalent of CAD$25 including tip would get you and 3-4 friends out and back to a respectable chunk of the city.
I’m always surprised this isn’t the norm. In the UK almost every convenience store sells alcohol
Any reason you’re comparing to the UK and not the closer America? Always funny seeing how casually people can go into something like a convenience store and pickup some booze. Makes us seem so weirdly restrictive.
Ah I see, you’re just commenting on an Ontario, Canada based post on a Canadian Lemmy instance is why I was curious :P
Don’t even like Ford but this is pretty standard. These puritan era alcohol restrictions need to end.
I worked at a 7-Eleven across the street from a university. It took years off my life. You expect a till jockey making minimum wage to cut drunk university students off? These are the same people who think nothing of starting food fights, smashing windows, upending garbage cans, or cutting open as many bags of chips as they can. That won’t end well. Also, Doug’s brother had substance abuse issues. This is unseemly.
