The City of Calgary has approved a process to designate public pot smoking areas.
The designated consumption sites would be exempt from the law that prohibits all public consumption and the city says councillors and their ward residents will have a say in where these sites will be located.
The city says these defined spaces will be marked with signage, waste bins and tamper-proof ashtrays.
Ward Eight Councillor Evan Woolley says he will not support any individual sites being opened in any of his ward’s neighbourhoods.
“I’m not interested in having a pot park in my neighbourhood that everybody gets together to smoke pot and I thought the model of just allowing people to consume marijuana across the city whether it’s on sidewalks or in parks or whatever would just fuse any potential challenge we have in consolidating any behavior or any activity,” says Woolley.
Currently there are no proposed sites in Calgary and at this time Ward Seven Councillor Druh Farrell will not speculate on what might be a good location.
“We would need to talk with communities and see which areas are appropriate,” she says.
Farrell says idea of cannabis legislation and legalization is brand new for everyone in Canada and Calgary.
“It’s been messy and it will be messy so we’re going to observe and adapt. I’m not sure if the issues that people predict will come to fruition. I fully expect we’ll learn from our mistakes and adjust,” says Farrell.
“I think we have been given some confidence from our Calgary police that they will be using discretion around this that they are much more interested in informing than enforcement. This is something new. This is something we’ll have to watch as it progresses,” says Woolley.
City hall could start awarding cannabis store development permits as early as July 30th.
Marijuana becomes legal in Canada on October 17th.
