Most municipal candidates support ban on smoking pot in public areas: survey

An overwhelming number of municipal candidates from across Alberta surveyed by anti-smoking advocate group Action on Smoking and Health support municipal restrictions on the use of cannabis in public places.

In total, 159 candidates from 20 major Alberta municipalities were asked nine questions in the survey

on cannabis and tobacco between Oct. 2 and Oct. 11.

Of those candidates, 133 respondents, or 84 per cent, said they support restrictions.

Almost as many, 121 respondents or 76 per cent, said they support municipal licensing of cannabis retail sales, and 129 candidates also supported the use of municipal zoning to control location of cannabis retail stores.

“The new councils will be scrambling to develop local bylaws to regulate the sale and use of cannabis in the months ahead,” the group’s executive director Les Hagen said in a release Friday.

“We are also pleased to learn that more than 70 per cent of the candidates surveyed feel that tobacco and cannabis smoking should be banned in public areas.

“Smoking bans must be expanded to include cannabis or it may lead to the renormalization of smoking in public places, which could set back our collective efforts to reduce tobacco use.”

Recreational marijuana is expected to be legalized in Canada next July.