Is our society really ready for public pot smoking?

The newest freedom to be enjoyed will be walking down Jasper Avenue while smoking a joint.

If the federal government moves ahead with its plan to legalize marijuana, any adult can do just that sometime in 2018.

This isn’t big news because people have known for years that legalization is coming, but the reality of it is causing a stir, for example at the convention of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, a group made up of city and town councillors.

There was a buzz in the room at an information session Thursday after Ethan Bayne, executive director of engagement and outreach of the provincial government’s Alberta Cannabis Secretariat, talked about how legalization will play out with public pot smoking.

“There will be some areas where adults will be permitted to use cannabis in public places. 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’ve got to smell skunk when you eat your lunch,” Taylor said. “That doesn’t sound right.”

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

Taylor continued: “The problem is you bring it in one area and say, ‘We are going to look at it as an intoxicating drug where you’re not going to take it and drive.’ And then we’re going to lower the standard and put it into popular 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 ... That’s an inconsistency that needs to be addressed.”

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 to ban smoking cannabis in various places, Bayne said. “If they want to identify specific areas where it’s specifically prohibited, they could do that.”

What about simply banning cannabis smoking outside on public property, I asked Bayne? Could a city council do that?

“Theoretically they could,” he said, but added that municipal councils must think about giving people places to consume a legal product.

That last point is critical. Cannabis is going to be legal, so people are going to have to change their way of viewing it. For those who have lived with this prohibition all of their adult lives, that’s going to be a challenge now and then, but I suspect people will get through the legalization process just fine.

As Bayne put it: “Cannabis is in our communities right now. (Legalization) is not going to dramatically transform … People who use it now (about one in five adults) are people who are going to continue to use it.”

The benefits of ending prohibition are many. For one thing, consumers will know exactly what they’re buying. They won’t have to fear purchasing and using an overly potent or toxic product. The government can also tax this business now. Business people can make a living and provide jobs for others without fear of arrest or violent competition for turf.

Bayne made a point of telling local politicians that new federal laws will establish drug-level limits for driving. Those found above the limit will be guilty of committing a criminal offence. But, he added, drug-impaired driving already goes on. “It’s a serious problem today. We anticipate there may be a slight increase as a result of legalization but it’s not a problem that’s created as result of legalization.”

The main benefit of legalization? It increases our self-respect. On one more front we’ve decided to treat ourselves as adults with the agency to make proper decisions in life, and not as children or as the helpless victims of reefer madness.

And while it will take some getting used to folks smoking up here and there in public, if major problem areas arise, city councils can simply clamp down.