To the editor:
I am writing about the privatization of liquor distribution announced in the B.C. Liberals recent Budget 2012.
The decision by B.C. Liberals to completely privatize liquor distribution demonstrates once again that this government values commercial interests above public-health concerns.
Six years after a rash of new private liquor stores were authorized by the government in 2002, the provincial health officer reported higher alcohol consumption and binge drinking among youth across B.C.
When the BC Liquor Distribution Branch totally disappears, its profits (currently projected at more than $900 million a year) will then accrue to the private sector. Alcohol will be more widely available and more aggressively marketed, and the increased social costs of alcohol abuse will fall to the public health system.
Privatize the profits and socialize the costs - this is the enduring legacy of the B.C. Liberals.
Larry Kazdan
Vancouver