U of A to have pot-friendly zones after legalization
AGLC won’t dispute estimate, but notes retailers may not turn profit right away
Pot-friendly zones for cannabis smoking and vaping will exist on the University of Alberta campus when it becomes legal next Wednesday.
The decision was a no-brainer, says the school’s director of enterprise risk management programs.
“Even before Day 1, our students told us it would be absurd to ban it,” said Andrew Leitch, who is also co-chairman of the cannabis working group, which consulted with students, faculty and staff to establish a harm reduction strategy based on risk education rather than prohibition.
“Students are smoking it now, and they’ll smoke it when it’s legal,” said Leitch of next Wednesday’s cannabis legalization date.
“This way we can be open about the fact that people are using it, while non-users are impacted as little as possible. There are a lot of unknowns, and there are a lot of risks, so why not help people in the community enter into this with our eyes open, with good information?”
In its report, the cannabis working group acknowledged that recreational cannabis is a public health issue and the university has “an opportunity to help avoid errors of the past associated with the harms of tobacco and alcohol,” aligning its policy with the intent behind legalization, reducing the stigma around cannabis while increasing health and safety.
“People should be aware of the risks and able to make their own decisions. Ultimately though, this is about permitting. We’re not here to promote cannabis,” Leitch said.
Advertising and selling cannabis products is banned on campus, as is the consumption, growing and cooking of cannabis products inside residence buildings.
“The university has a really interesting opportunity here. If Edmonton wasn’t so liberal with its cannabis laws we might not have the same level of opportunity,” said Adam Brown, vicepresident of external communications for the University of Alberta Students’ Union. He noted that several Alberta cities, including Calgary, have opted to prohibit public consumption of cannabis.
“Calgary has chosen to be stricter with cannabis legalization but Edmonton is taking a different approach, and it doesn’t make sense to ban cannabis use on campus when it will be available for public consumption in the community.”
As a result of Calgary’s ban on public cannabis consumption, the university there has prohibited consumption anywhere on its campus, with Mount Royal University and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology following suit. The University of Lethbridge has unveiled plans to create five areas on campus where cannabis consumption will be permitted.
The U of A will designate a similar
number of pot-friendly zones and, while the exact locations are still being determined, they must comply with Edmonton’s smoking bylaws — at least 10 metres from building entrances, open windows, air intake vents and non-users, 30 metres from sports fields and children’s events or amenities.
“A big one for us would be the Lister Centre,” said Leitch, referring to the university’s largest residence at 87 Avenue and 116 Street, home to approximately 2,200 students.
“Nobody knows how this is going to play out at all, but we do want to make sure that residents on campus don’t have to cross the campus to smoke or put themselves at risk by having to leave campus entirely. But we’d rather start with a small and reasonable number and see which changes need to be implemented over time.”
After legalization takes effect, the cannabis working group plans to accept ongoing feedback and review its policy every six months.
“One thing we know is that the smell, people who don’t like it
really don’t like it,” Leitch said. “We can’t guarantee that people passing through campus won’t get a whiff of it, but we can expect that people will respect one another.”
The cannabis working group did not recommend any changes to the university’s current tobacco use policies, but will develop a clean air strategy to minimize the potential impact.
“Regardless of whether it was going to be banned or allowed on campus, it was going to be happening,” Brown said.
“There are some students that would like to see cannabis banned on campus or object to its legalization, but ultimately this policy is about the health and safety of students, communicating throughout the process and making sure that we minimize the impact on anyone who chooses not to consume. Whether students choose to consume it or not, they don’t want their university experience to be hampered by legalization.”
Alberta’s marijuana market CALGARY could fuel 500 cannabis stores within a few years, says an industry expert and provincial regulator.
Considering Alberta’s population is only about one million below that of Colorado, which enacted legalized cannabis nearly five years ago and now hosts about 550 stores, the province should be able to support 500 outlets, said Dan Rowland, who advised the city of Denver on its retail rollout.
If anything, maximizing the number of outlets will ensure the industry’s success against illicit sellers, he said.
“That sounds like a lot of stores but access is the key to destroying the black market,” said Rowland, who is now a consultant for Calgary-based retailer 420 Premium Market.
“One of the first goals is to absorb that black market, and that only happens by opening up a bunch of stores.”
Both markets share a number of similarities, including a dynamic population geared to outdoor pursuits, a Rocky Mountain geography and shared economic traits, Rowland said.
“It’s a pretty fair comparison — there’s plenty of room for a large number of retailers in Alberta,” he said, adding it’s not unrealistic that 500 number could be reached in three or four years.
In its first year of legalization, Colorado counted 322 marijuana outlets, and 459 after three years.
“Recreational cannabis sales have gone up every year, as have our per-store stales,” Rowland said.
The province hasn’t placed a cap on the number of cannabis stores. The Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission has received nearly 800 retail applications.
While some of those filings have been rejected by municipalities or appealed, 500 stores in Alberta could come to pass, said AGLC spokeswoman Kaleigh Miller.
“(Rowland) could be bang-on with it, in a couple of years,” she said.
“I wouldn’t say he’s correct or incorrect but it’s a great speculation ... he’s probably pretty close to the number.”
The province has based its forecast of a possible 250 cannabis stores after the first year of legalization on the experience of Oregon, which has a population close to Alberta’s 4.5 million people.
But Miller said tight profit margins for the stores could fairly quickly weed out some of the players.
An AGLC information sheet cautions retailers it could be two years before they realize profits.
“It takes a few years to take off,” she said.
Some would-be cannabis retailers say wholesale cannabis prices set by the AGLC are too high for them to sustain a healthy business while competing with both the commission’s pot sales website and the black market.
There are about 1,500 liquor stores operating in Alberta, a number that’s grown from an initial 208 when that industry was privatized in 1993.
But while nearly 80 per cent of Albertans consume alcohol, Statistics Canada figures from earlier this year state 17 per cent of the population aged 15 and over use some amount of marijuana.
But many in the cannabis industry are counting on a wider variety of cannabis products, including infused beverages and edibles, to vastly expand their market.
Edibles aren’t expected to be legalized until next summer, but are readily available on black market websites.
“We’ve only scratched the surface,” Rowland said.
The AGLC says 17 cannabis stores will probably open when recreational pot legalization takes effect Oct. 17, with just two of them in Calgary, while 12 will be in the Edmonton area.
Up to 100 stores could be approved to open by month’s end, with some of those in Calgary, said the AGLC.