St. Clair, U of W still crafting policies
Administrators at both the University of Windsor and St. Clair College are still working out the details of a campus policy on recreational cannabis use, which becomes legal in Canada Wednesday. Post-secondary policy-makers were thrown a late curveball by Premier Doug Ford’s recent announcement that smoking cannabis would be allowed in public spaces.
“That’s become part of the decision on what’s going to happen,” said John Fairley, vice-president of communications and community relations for St. Clair College. Fairley said administration and members of student government from both the Windsor and Chatham campuses met for a “student breakfast” on the subject Wednesday.
“We’re working on the policy together,” Fairley said. “We should have something announced by next Tuesday if not before.”
At the University of Windsor, a committee that includes representation from campus police, legal services, residence life, health and safety, the university ’s student association and the graduate student society continues to hammer out policy points.
“We have a strategy that’s in its fourth or fifth draft,” said Ryan Flannagan, associate vice-president of student experience. Flannagan added they would have had it done already but for the government’s late announcement that cannabis use would follow the same guidelines as the Smoke Free Ontario Act.
“We’re working on a strategy with that development in mind,” Flannagan said. “We’re hoping by the 17th to have it figured out.” Other universities across the country have already announced outright bans of cannabis use on campus. The University of Waterloo, Carleton University and the University of New Brunswick are banning smoking marijuana. UNB and Waterloo will allow students living in residence to make and eat cannabis oil-infused edibles, but Carleton will not.
“I think the university is pushing for a smoke-free campus,” said Jeremiah Bowers, president of the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance. “That’s kind of the popular trend across Canada.” Bowers said UWSA has not yet released its policy preference. The Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) wants policies that are inclusive of the needs of students who wish to legally access and use cannabis. “On-campus policies should reflect policies outside of campus as well,” said Heather D’Alessio, a chapter liaison for the CSSDP and an Algonquin College business student.
D’Alessio said the group worries policies will be so restrictive that students will have nowhere to go to consume the product.
She said the group was glad to see one potential restriction, stating a user had to own the home in which the cannabis was consumed, was eventually scrapped. D’Alessio said research shows the largest segment of cannabis users in Canada are between the ages of 18 and 25 “and very few of them actually own homes.” The popularity of cannabis among that age group is also a reason why the students group is wary of age restrictions on access, noting Quebec’s suggestion to raise the minimum age for legal use to 21.
The legal age in Ontario will be 19.
“It is going to vary from province to province and even from campus to campus,” D’Alessio said. “It will definitely be interesting to see the way all these patchwork systems show different strengths or flaws.”