I think the points you've raised are important ones. I have always believed that the way you compete with the illegal market in this area, as in some others, is with quality, choice, and price. It's going to be interesting and it will take time. It's going to take more than a few months to develop a stable, normalized retail market in whatever form provinces choose to put that in play. The world in which we live is one where people are used to ordering online, buying online, and we've seen with medicinal that, in fact, that platform works.
I certainly take your point in terms of lack of direct input from pharmacists in many of those transactions, although everybody should have a doctor who has authorized the product.
I think e-commerce going forward will be important, which is why you saw Ontario specifically including an e-commerce platform in its proposal on Friday as it related to the province and ordering from its retail and wholesale distributors. I think it will be interesting, as this market evolves, to see whether or not.... Some form of national e-commerce platform will be an important complement to that which is presently being recommended in the legislation.
I think you need to remember it will take time. We will learn what this marketplace needs, both in terms of safety and health but also trying to get the black market or illegal market out of this space. We're not naive. We're not suggesting that you're ever going to reach nirvana in terms that there won't be any illegal sales. We still have illegal sales of tobacco, and a bit of illegal sales of alcohol although very little in terms of consumption.
I think what the task force would say is that e-commerce will be an important part of this market going forward. How that happens and when it happens probably requires more conversation between the Government of Canada and the provinces and territories.