Nenshi open to revisiting city ban on public pot use
Despite city bylaws outlawing the public consumption of recently legalized cannabis, Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he’s open to potential changes in the future.
“I think what we’ve seen is (the ban) appears to be working at the moment,” Nenshi said.
“If there are huge calls for change, we’ll have those. As I’ve said before, folks who wanted to consume cannabis on October 16 figured out how to do it, and on October 17 they also figured out how to do it.”
Nenshi said the city doesn’t currently have plans to change the rules, but will revisit the issue if councillors begin to hear otherwise from citizens.
Four public consumption sites — in Inglewood, Bridgeland and Ogden — proposed by Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra were shot down a month before legalization, leaving many Calgarians without a legal place to consume the product.
The rules in Calgary differ greatly from those in Edmonton, which passed bylaws governing vaping and smoking of tobacco and cannabis — banning use within 10 metres of doors, windows, patios, bus stops and air intakes.
But Edmonton officials did set up designated smoking zones on two of the city’s most popular streets.
In spite of Calgary having only two stores open when cannabis became legal last week, Nenshi said the city ’s reality has been far from disruptive.
“(It’s gone) about as smoothly as we could’ve hoped,” Nenshi said Saturday.
“Certainly, we would’ve liked to have more retail locations open in time for Day 1, but those will come. There’s another nine in the hopper that are waiting for one more check off from (Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis), so I think things are fine.”
When legalization became official Wednesday, hundreds lined up for hours outside of Four20 Premium Market and Nova Cannabis Willow Park — the only two stores open.
The demand to purchase legal
cannabis has yet to die down, with hour-long wait times outside of Nova on Friday afternoon.
Having been all across the city last week for his mayoral duties, Nenshi said not once did he catch a whiff of cannabis being smoked.
“I’ve seen very little social disorder,” he said.
“I’ve been all over the city and I haven’t smelled any, which was
I’ve been all over the city and I haven’t smelled any, which was not what I was expecting.
not what I was expecting. I think people are being responsible.
“The point now is we’ll wait, we’ll watch, we’ll see and, sometime in the new year, if there’s changes to make, we’ll make them.”
Nenshi said things have been surprisingly quiet when it comes to complaints.
“The world didn’t appear to change on the 17th in a big way,” he said.
There were, however, noise complaints from residents near Four20 Premium Market, forcing the store to change its closing time to 10 p.m. from the previous 2 a.m.