Island campuses vary on approaches to pot

Campuses on Vancouver Island are taking different approaches to recreational cannabis, ranging from near indifference to an outright ban.

Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo has decided to ban smoking or vaping cannabis until the institution has had a chance to engage in dialogue with students, staff and faculty and come up with a policy, likely this fall.

North Island College also continues to ban recreational cannabis on campus.

Camosun College has decided its long-standing rules governing behaviour, smoking and vaping will cover the use of cannabis.

Joan Yates, Camosun’s vicepresident, student experience, said students and staff will be allowed to smoke cannabis in designated smoking areas, but should not attend class or operate machinery while high.

The major warning, Yates said, is “don’t engage in any behaviour that impedes the learning of other people or your own.”

“We examined the current policies we had on conduct and smoking and felt we actually had it pretty covered,” she said.

The University of Victoria, will allow the smoking of cannabis on campus at two of its 14 designated smoking areas.

Royal Roads has taken a similar approach, designating specific areas for smoking cannabis, separate from the tobacco zones.

All the institutions said they expect policies to be modified over time.

Susan Boyd, a UVic professor of human and social development who was part of the federal task force examining cannabis, said she expects people will celebrate in the first few days of legalization.

“It is a historic moment and people will probably celebrate,” Boyd said. “I hope they do — they should.”

But in the months and years following, she expects community agencies will adopt and adapt policies to govern the substance, its use and sale.

In terms of overall use, Boyd said polls reveal 45 per cent of British Columbians tried cannabis while it was illegal, and she doubts use will change very much.

She expects the most profound effect will be cultural as the community adjusts to the idea of cannabis free from criminal consequences.

“We should not underestimate the harms that have happened under cannabis criminalization: the arrests, people going to prison, the traumas, the encounters with law enforcement and the courts,” Boyd said.

“This has impacted people for life,” she said. “And a lot of the burden of cannabis criminalization has landed on young people and poor people who can’t afford a proper legal defence.”