BOWDEN - Bowden mayor Robb Stuart sees both sides to a call by some Alberta municipalities for the province to create one set of cannabis consumption rules for all communities.
Town councillors are scheduled to debate their own cannabis bylaw on Oct. 22.
Some municipalities in the province like Innisfail and Red Deer are banning all public consumption of cannabis while others, like Penhold are allowing it in certain places with restrictions.
Spokesmen for several communities have said that's leading to a hodgepodge of different rules in different communities, which will leave consumers confused.
As a result, during the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention in Red Deer late last month, delegates passed a resolution on the matter.
It calls on the province to "ensure the consumption of cannabis is provincially regulated the same as liquor is currently regulated in public spaces across Alberta."
"You can't walk down the street drinking a beer and we figure it should be the same," Stuart says.
But at the same time, he notes there's inconsistency in asserting a municipality's right to govern itself on one hand and calling on the government to set provincewide rules on the others.
"They said that 'well, we always want to make sure that we make our own rules for our own municipality' and yet we keep going to the province and asking them to make the rules for us," he says.
Stuart warns municipal politicians should be careful what they wish for.
"Then we may not get what we like," he says.
Cannabis was a big topic during the convention.
Stuart and fellow councillors who attended it were looking for ideas on how to set consumption rules in Bowden.
"A lot of them are doing it like the cigarettes: you're not allowed (to smoke) within so many metres of an entrance," he said.
Stuart can see the need to do something.
"I can walk around town and smell it now," he says. "I know it's there and people are smoking it anyway. I just don't want to see it more prevalent where they're smoking it actually closer to the schools or (places like public buildings)."
However, Stuart says setting rules on where cannabis can be consumed is especially difficult in communities like Bowden because they're -- well -- small.
"There was something in the news last night about some town and they put in setbacks and it pretty well outlaws most of the town," he said.
