Spectre of public pot smoking kicks up a stink

EDMONTON It’s been known for several years that cannabis will be legalized in 2018, but the reality of public pot smoking doesn’t sit well with some local politicians.

There was a buzz in the room at an information session at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention in Edmonton on Thursday after a provincial government official Ethan Bayne, executive director of engagement and outreach of the Alberta Cannabis Secretariat, talked about how legalization will allow people to smoke cannabis in public.

“There will be some areas where adults will be permitted to use cannabis in public places,” Bayne said. “It will be prohibited, smoking and vaping of cannabis, anywhere that smoking of tobacco is currently prohibited under provincial law, plus some additional areas, typically frequented by children or there might be an elderly person.”

After he spoke, a rural councillor, Will Taylor from the town of Blackfalds, approached Bayne with his concerns.

“You go sit in the park, open up your picnic basket and, by what we’re being suggested under the law, all of a sudden now you got to smell skunk when you eat your lunch,” Taylor said. “That doesn’t sound right.”

It will indeed be legal to sit down outside in a public park and smoke cannabis, Bayne confirmed.

Taylor pointed out there was an inconsistency between making it illegal to smoke cannabis and drive intoxicated, but then allowing it to be used in public parks. “I can’t take a bottle of whisky and just do this in the park because somebody is going to come along and pick me up.”

Bayne said there would be a number of inconsistencies because cannabis isn’t exactly like alcohol and it isn’t exactly like tobacco.

“The rules are not 100 per cent going to match.”

Municipalities can make more stringent rules banning smoking up in various places, Bayne said. “If they want to identify specific areas where it’s specifically prohibited, they could do that.”