By Sheldon Spackman

No pot consumption in public places in Drayton Valley

Oct 19, 2018 | 12:31 PM

There will be no smoking of marijuana in public places in the Town of Drayton Valley despite the legalization of cannabis in Canada this week.

Council passed third and final reading of their Cannabis-Free Public Places Bylaw October 17, legalization day in Canada.

“Even though cannabis is legal, there will be no consumption in public places,” Mayor Michael Doerksen says. “Whether you’re in a park, you’re on a sidewalk, even if you’re walking through the parking lot of a grocery store or something like that, it’s actually the same as alcohol where you can’t have open alcohol on the streets in public places. It’s zero consumption.”

Doerksen says if people in Drayton Valley want to smoke pot in their community, they will have to do it in the privacy of their own residence.

“There might be some issues with condominiums because technically they can be considered public spaces but the bylaw simply states that there’s zero consumption of cannabis in public places in Drayton Valley,” states Doerksen. “There was one councilor that was looking at bringing the Smoking-Tobacco Bylaw into this but we decided we’ll just deal with cannabis for now. So even though you can smoke cigarettes on the street, you can’t smoke cannabis.”

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Doerksen says he pleased with the new bylaw at this point, saying most people in the community don’t want the odour of cannabis wafting through their town in public places, especially around children and youth.

“Some people were hoping that maybe, you know you have a beer tent at an event, you maybe have a designated area for cannabis but we didn’t want to go down that road right now,” adds Doerksen. “We’ll see how it moves forward. It’s easier to make the restrictions more lax than making them more stringent going forward.”

In terms of cannabis retail sales and signage in Drayton Valley, Mayor Doerksen says characters and numbers are allowed but no logos.

“Just so if there’s a store in a highly visible area, it’s less noticeable,” says Doerksen. “You can’t just have a big neon marijuana leaf or something like that, so it’s a little more discreet.”

Doerksen says only one application for a cannabis retail sales store has been received as of October 17, while town officials confirm  there are currently no development permits or business licenses approved as of yet and no cannabis retail stores in operation in the community.

Doerksen anticipates those numbers to grow however as upwards of 20 potential applicants expressed interest in establishing cannabis retail operations in town earlier this summer.

“There’s a lot of people kind of kicking the tires on it but how many people are serious about it? We’ll see,” states Doerksen. “I do expect we’ll see at least another one or two more business license applications and some development permits, so it will be interesting to see.”

In addition, Doerksen says the fee for obtaining a cannabis retail business license in Drayton Valley has been set at $500 per year, compared to $100 per year for a standard business license in town.

“Half the council wanted a much higher rate, while the other half wanted it to be the standard business rate,” exclaims Doerksen. “So we just kind of had to meet in the middle essentially. That’s more or less related to the increased cost of having cannabis legalized in our municipality and from what it looks like to me, the province won’t be funneling very much of their tax revenue that they generate off of cannabis to municipalities which is very unfortunate.”