Pot rules could mirror Calgary
City committee will recommend council adopt a blanket public ban minus exemptions that could include designated park(s)
City council will consider banning cannabis use almost everywhere outside private homes in Medicine Hat, but with a few exemptions and also a legal avenue to designate a specific park, pathway or general area where residents could light up.
A special meeting of the public services committee held late Tuesday resulted in a general recommendation that Medicine Hat should follow Calgary’s cannabis bylaw.
That city won’t allow pot to be smoked on sidewalks, parks and roadways, as well as near or in buildings open to the public.
Calgary council also entertained designating four city parks as space where the bylaw would not apply. Though that proposal was cancelled last month, the ability to do so in the future is a possibility.
Committee chair Coun. Julie Friesen said a local bylaw is in the works and will reflect the community’s standard, but will need to be discussed by all of council.
“From my perspective I’d like to take a more conservative route: No public use but with some provisions,” she said. “We have to get agreement on the principle; then you talk details.”
Last week council voted down a bylaw that would have blended prohibitions for marijuana alongside smoking tobacco in an existing antismoking bylaw.
Now, council will be presented with the idea of banning public use with an exception for medicinal use, the ability to apply for special outdoor event permits, and the power to designate space in the future as to where the bylaw doesn’t apply.
Committee member Kris Samraj says debate surrounding sidewalks is an obvious tension point where conflicts could arise, but sees the need for some allowance.
“It’s a legal product and I think we’ll have to carve out some public space for it,” he told the committee. “A complete ban I don’t think is realistic.”
He said that since the legalization day will pass before a local bylaw is possible, it will give council members time to gauge effects of recreational marijuana before legislating it.
“The smell is a nuisance,” he said. “But people aren’t going to be walking down the street blowing smoke in people’s faces. I think most people are respectful of the rights of non-smokers.”
The plan would be debated by all city council members, possibly Oct. 15, who could then order work to write the bylaw. There is little chance local restrictions could be in place by Oct. 17, the legalization date set by Ottawa.
At that point, a combination of provincial law and city tobacco legislation would prohibit pot use in buildings, cars, parks and within five metres of doorways, even without a specific city bylaw, say the city’s legal team.
The trouble, the committee heard, is that a public use ban, combined with landlords and condo boards that appear ready to ban the substance from their premises, leaves those with medical prescription without a legal venue to consume.
Coun. Jim Turner said his feeling is the majority of Hatters would like to see a total ban, but legislating that and finding exemptions is tricky.
“Where do these people go,” he asked. “Otherwise I’m leaning towards a total ban.”
In a similar vein, an outright outdoor ban on smoking recreationally would seem to target renters hardest.
City solicitor Bob Schmidt said bylaws are complex, and it is “not manageable” to ask landlords to provide space in their buildings, then enforce that standard.
“Trying to allow people to smoke it is problematic if that’s not in public,” he said. “The simpler the better, in my opinion.”
Coun. Brian Varga, who attended the meeting, wondered how such a bylaw would be enforced.
“People are doing it (pot) already,” he said, comparing the enforcement to efforts to contain cigarettes. “It’s not like smoking, it’s more than that. If I’m walking through a parking lot and through a haze, then I’m going to have a problem with that.”