'Cannabis gardens' should be allowed at Calgary events, says city committee

Calgarians should be able to toke up at outdoor events once marijuana is legalized, a city committee voted on Wednesday.

A council committee approved allowing festival organizers to apply for permits to establish "cannabis gardens" similar to beer gardens at events, allowing festival goers to smoke or vape cannabis once recreational use of marijuana is legalized in Canada, which is expected to happen later this year.

Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart says her colleagues are trying to take cautious steps when it comes to regulating cannabis use.

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"Part of the philosophy right now is rather than opening this up to the Wild, Wild West and anything goes, it's easier at the beginning to regulate it in some way and then maybe four months, six months from now, we can ease up," she said.

But not all committee members agreed with that stance.

Coun. Evan Woolley voted against the motion, along with Coun. Jyoti Gondek.

Woolley says it sounds like a solution in search of a problem, given that pot has been consumed for years at events like the Calgary Folk Music Festival without any major problems.

'Bureaucracies begin with over-regulation'

"Government and bureaucracies begin with over-regulation," he said.

"Regulation costs money and resources, and given the presentation that we heard from the police today, they are strained, and so do we want to spend strained police resources on ticketing and bugging people consuming a product that is now going to be legal?"

Calgary Folk Music Festivalexecutive directorSaraLeishmansays they will not be looking to adda cannabis garden at this year's event, evenif marijuana is already legalized.

"It is unlikely that the legislation will be passed in time for this year'sfestival. In the off-chance that it is,we simply would not have time to redraft site plans and have them approved nor get our volunteers appropriately trained prior tofestivallaunch," read a statement.

The statement added organizers will look at it as a possibility in 2019.

City council has already voted to prohibit cannabis consumption in most public areas.

Council as a whole will vote on the cannabis garden proposal later this month.

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