Premier Doug Ford is giving up Ontario’s monopoly on weed, opening sales of recreational cannabis to private stores by April 1 in a dramatic shift that will make this province the biggest prize for Canada’s emerging legal marijuana industry.

The move scraps the defeated Liberal government’s plan for 150 brick-and-mortar Ontario Cannabis Stores, modelled on LCBO outlets, by 2020. However, until a private retail system is in place, the OCS website will be the only legal source for recreational pot smokers in Ontario after cannabis use is legalized nationwide on Oct. 17.

Read more about this topic in this article from The Toronto Star.