The Trudeau government is planning to bring in legislation to legalize marijuana in Canada and that means many cities are working to iron out the details on how to regulate it.
The City of Calgary, Calgary Police Service and other agencies, including many representatives of the city’s medical marijuana community, met with officials from the City of Denver on Monday to learn about how pot legalization affected their community.
Councillors expressed concern over the coming rules and how they are going to look.
One of the biggest concerns has to do with the residential growing of marijuana.
A task force put in place by the federal government has recommended that homes be allowed to grow four plants.
Some councillors are worried that building codes may need to be changed in order to accommodate the extra humidity in houses.
However, there are a number of tools that the city can use to help regulate marijuana in the city.
Land use bylaws can limit where marijuana sales can take place, zoning restrictions can be imposed on the residential production of marijuana and the city can also put licencing restrictions in place for commercial ventures.
There could also be laws to regulate public nuisance, for example, if the smell of marijuana smoke blowing across a fence into a neighbour’s yard disturbs someone.
Jeff Mooij, the owner of Inglewood’s 420 Clinic, says he intends to open up a shop for medical marijuana and thinks the city should regulate them in the same way it regulates liquor stores.
“I think we are going to do this in a much smarter and more collaborative way,” he says.
Mooij’s clinic is already regulated by city bylaws because it offers counselling for medical marijuana use.
At this point, council is merely learning about the issues and won’t be passing any decisions or legislation during Monday’s meetings.
