Alberta pot cafes on hold until edibles regulated

Councillor blames move on lack of communication between feds, provinces

Albertans hoping to spark up in a cannabis cafe or lounge will have to wait until edible cannabis products are regulated, says the province.

In a statement, the province said while they await more information on an easy-to-eat pot product, they will be ready to regulate brick-andmortar consumption sites at a later date.

Health Canada has set a prospective date of July 2019 for the sale of edible marijuana products.

Ward 3 Coun. Jyoti Gondek said a lack of government communication has caused issues that could have been prevented.

“My thoughts haven’t changed much over the entire time we have been having this debate,” she said.

“I will go back to the root cause of this problem: when the federal government said it was going to legalize cannabis, they did not sit down with its counterparts in other orders of government to talk about the change and its impact on the province and its municipalities.

“As a result, we are where we are. We are trying to explain how residents would like to partake in the legalization of cannabis and are unable to influence the policy change now.”

Had the federal government taken the time to talk to provincial politicians, Gondek said, this situation could have been avoided.

“If someone had actually bothered to take the time to talk to the people who roll out services in the places people live and will be consuming a legal product, we could have told them they need a place for people to go,” she said.

“But nobody asked us. This is more of a systemic issue where governments are viewed to be layered in sort of a hierarchy, when they should be viewed as a partnership where everyone has specific services to deliver.”

Gondek added she was concerned that the provincial government has yet to say how shared revenues will be distributed.

We are trying to explain how residents would like to partake in the legalization ... and are unable to influence the policy change now.

There was a chance that Calgarians would be able to legally light up in public, but four proposed cannabis consumption sites got shot down last week.

It means those living in nonsmoking condos, apartments or rental properties won’t have a place to consume marijuana once it becomes legal on Oct. 17.

Pot lounges have been operating in some Canadian cities for years, often under the blind eye of law enforcement.