Bread, Milk, Budda, and Beer ... get it all here!

Premier Kathleen Wynne recently announced changes to how and where Ontario sells it's beer.
You can read about it in this article.

It took a brief convo with my Daddy to really help me formulate my outrage for Premier Wynne's recent announcement to begin selling beer in grocery stores.  I mean, I've been quite outraged about this possible change for years now.  I signed multiple petitions when the idea was given that convenience stores would have their chance.

For me, there are and were many points of unease where this is concerned.  Why make an addictive, mind-altering substance more convenient to buy?  Wasn't it a mere month ago that the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported that 20% of Canadians drink too much alcohol?  Are we wanting to increase our 50,000 alcohol related deaths per year?  I always feared for the convenience store worker, as I doubted they'd be adding another employee for safety measures.

In speaking with local store owners, they seemed gung-ho!  They wanted a piece of the pie.  One store owner expressed that sentiment very clearly yet through disjointedly poor english:  "yes ... more business" was all he could say.

I feel outrage for the addicts and the alcoholics ... white knuckled or otherwise.  They used to be able to avoid temptation by avoiding the LCBO or the Beer store, and the streets they're on.  At the grocery store, they could use a lane near the front so they'd never know the Wine Rack was there.  But not anymore.  They'll likely now have to walk by the section with the Beer in it.  They'll likely have to smell it, as Beer permeates worse than dairy does!  They'll have to see the uber advertising, and you know it will be there.  Long story short:  they'll be tempted.  That ain't good and that ain't fair.

But as I mentioned above, there's a more concrete reason for my outrage, one a little lighter on feeling and a little heavier on facts.  You see, Premier Wynne's plan isn't going to even the playing field for the convenience stores or even the smaller grocers to allow them a sliver of that higher profit margin Big Grocery gets. No that would have been too fair.  What Wynne is doing here is she's taking this highly profitable product and allowing it to be sold in only the biggest Grocery chains with the deepest pockets.  No doubt the ones that donate the most to her campaigns ~past or present.

So in effect, Kathleen Wynne is allowing capitalism to decide this incredibly vital issue.
Making any addictive substance more available to the masses is a social issue not a corporate one!!

Months ago while getting some Buds for my babe at the Beer store, I noticed another flyer regarding this issue.  I grabbed one and said, "I thought Premier Wynne decided against doing this?".  The clerk simply gave me my change and said, "They're gonna do whatever they're gonna do."  I remember feeling somewhat superior in that moment as I thought to myself ... "c'mon buddy .. we have the power!".

But do we?
Are we being sold out?
Is Wynne just another gd sell-out?

I mean this is a social experiment in the making.  I surely hope someone is taking notes.  If alcohol-related deaths in Canada are around 50,000, how many will there be on the anniversary of this decision?  How many more livers will be scarred with Cirrhosis?  How many more DUI's.  How many more intoxicated drivers, boaters, and atv'ers will there be now that beer is so normalized you can buy it while you buy your bread, milk, and butter?

What message will Ontario be sending to our youth?  That booze is a normal addition to everyone's shopping list?