When marijuana becomes legal for non-medical use in Canada a few months from now, the City of Langley hopes to have some new rules in place to regulate how and where cannabis is consumed.
City Council has given preliminary approval to an overhaul of the current municipal smoking regulation bylaw that would include cannabis within the definition of “smoke” or “smoking.”
That means the same rules that govern tobacco would apply to pot, including a ban on smoking too close to “any point of any opening into any building, including any door or window that opens or any air intake.”
The regulations would also ban consumption of cannabis in a vehicle as well as “any area that may be frequented by children, including but not limited to parks and public facilities.”
The changes are in response to new provincial laws restricting the sale, display, promotion and use of tobacco and vapour products and banning cannabis smoking near children, including community beaches, parks and playgrounds.
The tobacco regulations increase the no-smoking buffer zone around all doorways, air intake and open windows to any “substantially enclosed public and work places in BC” to six metres from three metres.
The federal law that allows the use of non-medical marijuana is scheduled to come into force on Oct. 17.
Before the revised City regulations can take effect, they will have be approved by the minister of health.
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dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com
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