Cannabis is legal now in Canada
With cannabis set to be legalized across the country on Wednesday, Oct. 17, the health and safety of Albertans remains a top priority for the provincial government, a press release stated earlier this week.
However, with Canada being only the second country in the world to leglize it, what are some of the repercussions that communities will experience.
“As a council, we took a pretty hard stand on it,” said Tofield Mayor Deb Dueck. “We’d rather have stricter guidelines and possibly review at a future date to confirm if the bylaw is still applicable. We haven’t had any guidelines from the province, it would’ve been nice if there had been some provincial regulations so that there is a standard across the province in regard to where cannabis can be used, similar to alcohol use legislation.” Dueck added that she believes in the strong bylaw that the Town of Tofield has implemented around cannabis legalization.
According to Dueck, there’s still a stigma attached to cannabis. “We have to understand that it’s our children and youth who are up and coming in this world, and for them to witness this in public areas could have a negative impact,” Dueck explained. “I don’t think that the legalization was thought through thoroughly, it was rushed, but we as council had to set a bylaw for our municipality, similar to the use of alcohol.”
The Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) is the agency responsible for overseeing this new industry. Together with the Government of Alberta, AGLC is committed to a responsible, secure rollout of legal cannabis in the province, according to a statement released earlier. . . . contd.
