After a lengthy political approval process, the Canadian Government recently legalized recreational marijuana. Considering that marijuana has been illegal in Canada since 1923, It’s kind of a big deal!

Effective October 17, 2018, you can walk into a designated store and buy marijuana like you would buy beer and cigarettes. As various players such as growers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers scramble to get their act together, the expectation is that products offered will include smokes, vapes, and marijuana-laced edibles and beverages.

There is a new pot dealer in town, the Ontario Government.

When the Government sells pot, you do a reset on your perceptions of marijuana as an illegal intoxicant. The stigma associated with recreational weed is clearly waning.

When CNN first aired Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s “Weed,” it was an eye-opener to the potential use of cannabis for medical treatment purposes. This time around, the conversation is not limited to medical marijuana, we are talking about recreational marijuana.

I must admit that I am a little confused.

The proponents of marijuana — medicinal and recreational — will have you believe that it is the best thing since sliced bread. The mainstream media’s coverage of the benefits of marijuana is everywhere. From Harvard Health Publishing to The Globe and Mail, fact-based articles and research studies suggest that cannabis has applications that go beyond the potheads.

This recent article in Business Insider titled “23 health benefits of marijuana,” will make you wonder how we managed without legal cannabis until now.

The hype aside, what does it mean for ordinary folks like us?

Are we going to get hit with ads that tout the benefits of recreational cannabis over alcohol? Apparently, in head-to-head comparisons, marijuana comes out way ahead of alcohol and tobacco as the least harmful and the less addictive of the three substances. Here’s an abstract from a study conducted by the Society for the Study of Addiction.

If you were to believe Bruce Linton, CEO of marijuana producer Canopy Growth, the booze companies are running scared.

It may sound like David trash-talking to Goliath before he takes the famous slingshot that brings the giant Philistine warrior down. If you think about it, the David and Goliath comparison has merits. The newly legalized recreational marijuana market and its players are dwarfed by the sheer size of the alcohol industry and its established brands.

Here are some numbers.

For the year ending March 31, 2017, alcohol sales in Canada came in at a sizeable $22.5 billion while the estimate for cannabis sold in the black market during the same period stood at $5.6 billion. However, as per the analysts at CIBC, cannabis sales, projected at $6.5 billion, will top hard liquor sales in Canada by the year 2020.

Weed over whiskey!

With beer sales remaining flat and wine sales growing only marginally, it is clear that the alcohol industry has to now contend with a disruptive competitor in their midst. It is hard not to be bullish on the prospects of the recreational marijuana industry. After all, its revenue projection is primarily based on a shift from the illegal market to the legal side.

Some booze companies are paying attention.

Constellation Brands, the manufacturer of Corona beer and wine brands such as Robert Mondavi and Kim Crawford, has made sizeable investments in the sector. And Molson Coors has been in the news for its negotiations with prominent weed companies to launch cannabis-infused beverages.

And that brings me to my confusion.

Having grown up believing that marijuana is an illegal intoxicant, it is hard for me to start treating it as a wonder drug overnight. As long as I can remember, alcohol has been the social lubricant at parties; is it conceivable that marijuana may replace a portion of the beer and wine served at social events?

There is always the curiosity factor.

When Government-owned Ontario Cannabis Stores (OCS) promote and sell Marijuana, ordinary citizens will probably be more inclined to give it a try. Bob Dylan’s famous line “Everybody must get stoned” from the song “Rainy Day Women,” would make a great tagline for OCS.

The idea of the Government tapping into social vices to generate revenue is not new. Casinos and liquor stores are good examples.

When it comes to medical marijuana, there appears to be no confusion.

At a recent party, a friend pointed out that her physician had prescribed medical marijuana as a pain-killer for her chronic condition. Another friend cited an instance where a doctor had recommended cannabis to a cancer patient to alleviate the pain and nausea stemming from chemotherapy.

A couple of things are clear.

If the retailers set prices at levels that are comparable to the black market, the illegal market will slowly die. And the burgeoning cannabis sector will generate jobs — legal jobs.

And for the curious, you don’t have to fly to Amsterdam to legally try it.

Time will tell if the Government got this one right.