Doug Ford Doesn’t Know His Own Weed Policy

Yesterday, we published a story applauding Doug Ford’s plan for selling legal weed. But we may have spoken to soon as it appears Ontario’s premier isn’t entirely familiar with his own policy.

In an announcement Thursday, Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Finance Minister Vic Fedeli explained how the province plans on rolling out its retail scheme for weed sales. In a nutshell, weed will be sold by private dispensaries that will open in April. There’s no limit on the number of stores, but municipalities can opt out.

More detail on the policy here:

One of the most important takeaways is the Progressive Conservatives are aligning the rules around public consumption of cannabis with the Smoke Free Ontario Act that governs tobacco consumption. That means Ontarians will be able to consume weed wherever they can smoke cigarettes, including public parks.

The previous Liberal government intended to ban weed consumption anywhere except for a private dwelling.

However, today Ford seemed to backtrack on that part of the policy, telling reporters the idea of people smoking up in parks is “unacceptable.” When reporters informed him that indeed his policy states you can blaze in parks, Ford said he would be speaking to his ministers about it. He said he doesn’t want Ontarians to be able to consume weed anywhere near children.

In summary, it’s still totally unclear where you’ll be able to consume weed in Ontario come Oct. 17. But you definitely won’t be able to on a boat.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.

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