Would liberal pot bylaws make smoking cool again?

The community and public services committee Wednesday decided to recommend relaxed cannabis rules to council rather than draconian measures.

The recommended bylaw allows for smoking cannabis on all walking trails; 30 metres from playgrounds, sports fields, skate parks, spray parks, outdoor pools, skating rinks and other children-centred events or amenities; parks located in the river valley; at approved locations at festivals; all sidewalks, boulevards, alleyways or roadways; 10 metres from entrances and open windows or doors.

Council will vote on the proposed bylaw in July.

The city has about 900 parks, and cannabis can be consumed in about 300 of them because they don’t have playground equipment, which is why a minimum distance was adopted.

“It is a convoluted, complex, brand-new evolving cultural morass and we’re trying to solve that in a couple of bylaws? Na-ah,” said Ward 6 Coun. Scott McKeen. “It’s going to take a while.”

Most of the bylaws, he said, are idle, meaning “unless and until there is a complaint, nothing happens.

“They may even sound really restrictive to some people, but chances are that if you are in a back side of a park and you smoke cannabis and there is nobody there, it’s like a tree falling in a forest.”

Ward 8 Coun. Ben Henderson said he worried if the laws were too restrictive, there was a good chance they would be broken more often.

Les Hagen, from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), who spoke at the committee hearing, said he was satisfied with the motion passed, although it didn’t go the distance.

“We were also asking for a complete ban for smoking and vaping of any substance in city parks,” he said.

“And today ’s motion fell short of

We don’t allow people to drink in public and I don’t have reports … that we have an epidemic drunkenness problem.

a complete ban on parks, but what we have instead is a set-back distance from children’s amenities and parks and sports fields and such.”

Ward 10 Coun. Michael Walters was not completely satisfied with the motion, either.

“I would have a hard time supporting this when it comes to council,” he said. “I think it’s not quite restrictive enough.”

He acknowledged that creating bylaws for cannabis was a complicated issue, but said he was not in favour of widespread consumption on public sidewalks and sports and recreational fields.

He said he didn’t see any evidence to support the argument that too restrictive a law would lead to it being broken.

The city doesn’t allow people to drink in public, and is not receiving reports it is a widespread problem, Walters said.

McKeen said the aspects that the committee is trying to balance are health effects, nuisance — “Modern cannabis has that nest of skunks perfume to it” — and modelling.

“Did we get it right today? Probably not,” he said. “I’m trying to be a bit realistic here and trying to say we’ve got to start somewhere.”