Calgary is one step closer to allowing pot smoking at concerts and festivals, but regulations could end up keeping marijuana confined to particular areas of those events.
A city committee, looking into the creation of marijuana bylaws in the city, has voted in favour of a a bylaw that would allow events to apply to add areas on their venues for people to smoke and vape cannabis.
According to the results of a survey completed by thousands of Calgarians, 57 percent said that pot should be allowed within defined zones while 26 percent said that consumption of marijuana should be unfettered.
Mayor Nenshi says that we need to be careful because legalization of pot should not mean promotion of the drug.
“But, at the same time, it also means being realistic. So, if you have a situation where you have a legal product and people want to smoke that legal product, in a public place like a festival, let’s give them a spot to do it.”
He says that he wants pot to be treated more like smoking, where there are designated areas already in place.
Ward 13 councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart, a member of the city’s cannabis committee, says it’s easier at the beginning of legalization to impose regulations.
“Maybe in four months, six months from now, we can ease up and not regulate it to the extent that we are through bylaws.”
Colley-Urquhart says there are many facets of the industry that haven’t even been looked at and it’s all the more difficult because all levels of governments haven’t really ironed out what they’ll be doing in terms of regulation.
“I think it will be a whole other debate in the fall… We have to take a real hard look at this in six months when we have the option to do so without reconsidering what we’ve decided and go from there.”
Evan Woolley, Ward 8 councillor, says that there has been cannabis consumed at festivals and events in Calgary for many years and disagrees with imposing an excessive number of rules.
“[Pot smoking has] been happening without incident, so this is a solution in search of a problem. Oftentimes, government and bureaucracies begin with overregulation. We’ve heard it today from the police that regulation costs money and resources and they are strained.”
Woolley says he wants to take a ‘hands off’ approach when it comes to marijuana.
“Let’s see how things go. Humans have a great ability to self-regulate, as we see every day.”
The City of Calgary says marijuana enforcement will cost about $13M annually.
(With files from Jordan Kanygin)
