Council passes relaxed marijuana retail bylaw

After months of debate and finagling over zoning details, Regina finally has a bylaw regulating where cannabis dispensaries can open in the city.

Councillors passed a bylaw Monday that will authorize six licensed cannabis retail stores to set up downtown, in shopping centres and along major arteries, as well as throughout the Warehouse District.

The shops will be subject to buffer zones that will separate them from daycares, arenas, schools, parks and a set of other sites frequented by children. They must also be at least one block away from one another.

Councillors had agreed to that plan in principle at last month’s meeting, save for Coun. Bob Hawkins, who again expressed his opposition during the final vote on Monday.

“I think with the legalization of marijuana we are taking a step toward normalizing drug-taking in our society, and I think that’s very problematic,” said Hawkins, who warned the bylaw didn’t go far enough in restricting where pot shops can open.

He said young people would be at risk without further restrictions, calling marijuana a “gateway drug.”

Council had rejected Hawkins’ attempts, at both council and in an earlier committee meeting, to keep cannabis dispensaries out of most of the downtown and to double the buffer zone with the child-friendly land uses — which is currently set at 600 feet.

Instead, council at last month’s meeting moved to further relax a cannabis zoning plan it had earlier endorsed.

Councillors accepted arguments from the directors of business improvement districts downtown and in the Warehouse District, who said the earlier plan was too restrictive in those areas.

That sent the issue back to administration to adjust the bylaw to reflect the relaxed regulations. It came back for the final approval that council gave in its 10-1 vote on Monday.

I think with the legalization of marijuana we are taking a step toward normalizing drug-taking in our society