An Issue for Our Time

A headline in our local paper caught my eye the other day. Mother wants stores to stop selling alcohol-filled chocolates. It seems that her 14-year-old daughter innocently bought some. Mother was furious. She believes anything containing alcohol should be available only in liquor stores. The store has stopped selling them, no doubt in fear of the battalions of moral rectitude descending upon the premises. Other stores don't sell them to minors, but Mom wants them off the shelves entirely.

She must have been calling around, because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says liquor-filled products are the responsibility of the liquor board, but a spokeman for that august assemblage claims the treats are food. Well!

Mom says she's not giving up. She wants the Premier of New Brunswick to do something.

The Premier has lately been busy with more mundane matters and he may not be aware of the over-riding urgency. Perhaps it's a matter for the Supreme Court. Or perhaps the Canadian Senate could put aside, for the moment, its onerous work load and give consideration to the matter. Many an afternoon could be whiled away with their well known sober second thought, prior to happy hour. Whether this turns out to be the over-riding issue of the 21st century only time will tell.