Safety league: sell bongs, lose lottery

The Ontario Safety League is calling on MPPs to pass a law making it far less attractive for convenience stores to sell bongs and other drug paraphernalia.

League president Brian Patterson says they had 17 year old mystery shoppers easily purchase bongs and drug pipes from convenience stores around Toronto and Barrie. He says there’s an effective way to fix to the problem.

“If a convenience store sells bongs, pipes or grinders, chooses to sell drug paraphernalia, then they should lose the privilege of selling lottery tickets.”

“If convenience stores are forced to choose between the lucrative sale of lottery tickets, and selling drug paraphenalia contrary to the Criminal Code, I believe they’ll choose lottery tickets.”

The Ontario Convenience Store Association says it supports the league’s objective, but says it can be achieved with existing laws.

Additional video: News Now coverage of the Safety League news conference: