SUNDRE – Five years since recreational cannabis was legalized across Canada, the municipality’s mayor said he from a societal perspective has not seen any detrimental changes to Sundre.
“I never thought of it for so long now, it just has become normal,” Richard Warnock said on Oct. 18.
Warnock relocated to town in 2015, and was first elected to the municipal council as a councillor in 2017, about a year before the federal government officially legalized recreational cannabis on Oct. 17, 2018.
He became mayor during the general election in the fall of 2021.
Responding to a question about what legalization might have meant for the municipality, Warnock said he hadn’t seen or been presented with any evidence that the major drug policy shift following decades of prohibition had caused any problems regarding for example crime.
“From the mayor’s desk, I mean, it has not been an agenda item for some time,” he said.
And while administration endeavours to keep council informed about comments expressed by residents to the town on a variety of issues, the mayor said he was not aware of anyone raising the particular matter of legal recreational cannabis as a cause for concern.
“I guess what that does say, in my mind, is that society has accepted it and those who wish to do that just do it and those that don’t, don’t,” he said.
Otherwise, Warnock said the last time he gave the matter any consideration was during his time as a councillor on the last council, which had considered and eventually approved additional layers of regulations above and beyond what the provincial and federal governments had already legislated.
Among those conditions included where stores could be established as well as where people could lawfully consume or grow their own cannabis plants.
“We didn’t want it close to schools,” he said.
According to the municipality’s Cannabis Consumption Bylaw, which was passed on Oct. 15, 2018 just two days prior to legalization, the purpose “is to regulate the consumption of cannabis in all forms, in public places in order to promote the safe, enjoyable and reasonable use of such property for the benefit of all citizens.”
The bylaw outlines restrictions that include prohibiting in all public spaces the consumption – defined loosely as smoking, vaping, “or any other form of consumption” presumably including edibles and infused drinks – of any cannabis product.
As public parks, including nature trails and pathways, are listed among the prohibited areas to consume cannabis in any form, it is perhaps easier to summarize that in Sundre, the consumption of cannabis is – as per the municipality’s regulations – restricted exclusively to private, residential properties.
And anyone attempting to grow their own “must ensure that cannabis plants are contained on the property, away from public access, in a secure structure or in a secure fence.”
On paper, the penalties for any person determined to be guilty of an offence under the Municipal Government Act “is liable to a fine of not more than $10,000 or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or to both fine and imprisonment.”
When asked if he prior to the major policy shift had harboured any doubts or reservations going forward, or whether perhaps he felt legalization was the most reasonable course of action, the mayor said, “I guess I would say as an individual citizen, I did harbour some doubts.”
Elaborating, he added, “I was concerned about it becoming commonplace and whether that would cause issues or not. But it looks like it has not caused issues.”
That being said, however, Warnock – who as mayor has visited local cannabis businesses to welcome the owners to town – to this day remains from a personal point of view totally uninterested in trying out any recreational cannabis products from edibles to infused drinks or anything else, and said he’s never had the inclination.
Early on following the legalization of recreational cannabis, Sundre became home to Candre, a now-defunct, multi-million-dollar growing operation that remains in receivership. But two cannabis retail stores – both located along the Highway 27- Main Avenue corridor – remain open.
Almost two decades before the legalization of recreational cannabis, the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled in 2000 that Canadians have a constitutional right to access medicinal cannabis, with federal legislation passed in 2001.
The Albertan also connected with the Sundre RCMP detachment’s acting commander to seek both his personal and professional perspective in law enforcement.
Asked if he felt legalization had any societal impacts whether for better or for worse or if perhaps nothing much had substantially changed, Sgt. Randy Poon first pointed out his 20-plus years of policing experience spanned time on street beats as well as undercover work investigating organized crime.
“From a street policing perspective, I don’t think it’s really any different than what we used to do,” said Poon, adding the main difference is that officers generally no longer charge anybody for mere possession of cannabis.
It’s of course a different story if an individual is found to be driving under the substance’s influence, he said.
“We treat that the same as an impaired driving conviction; that hasn’t changed,” he said.
But officers typically don’t tend to issue warnings or lay charges over possession anymore, especially with youth, he said.
“In the past, it used to be mostly young people that would be out on the street with possession. So that certainly has lessened, obviously,” he said.
“The older folks that are in possession are usually at home,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “They’re more responsible.”
From an organized crime perspective, on the other hand, law enforcement used to target a lot of grow ops with a focus on traffickers, he said.
“What I think we’re seeing now, it’s not so much trafficking – like we don’t go after them as we did in the past with regards to that kinda stuff,” he said, referring to cannabis.
“They mostly use that as a currency to trade in the States because most states still have cannabis as illegal,” he said.
Although numerous individual states have legalized recreational cannabis, the U.S. federal government continues to consider cannabis to be an illegal substance alongside much harder drugs such as heroin, cocaine and meth.
However, Poon did not seem convinced that classification has much merit and even considers a legal substance like alcohol to potentially create more problems.
Responding to a question about which substance – based on his extensive experience – tended to more regularly fuel altercations that sometimes lead to violence, he without hesitation said, “Oh, it certainly is not cannabis” with a clearly unmistakable emphasis on “not” followed by a hearty laugh.
“If it’s just purely cannabis, contrary to what a lot of older folks might think, is that they’re actually mild, cooperative people,” he said.
“Alcohol, on the other hand, affects people differently. You get some that are really cooperative – happy, so to speak – some that become violent.”
With that being said, he went onto suggest that alcohol has far more power as an intoxicant to potentially trigger a violent reaction from some people.
“You don’t know what you’re going into with alcohol. With cannabis, not really; most of the people we deal with become quite compliant,” he said.
“However, if you mix things, then that becomes a dangerous cocktail, and then that’s unpredictable,” he added.
Perhaps one major change for police to come out of the legalization of cannabis, has been the ability to shift resources with a new focus on more serious substances.
“We’ve been able to move resources to harder drugs like cocaine, meth and so forth,” he said. “So, that’s been advantageous.”
Prior to legalization, Poon said he was ambivalent about the matter.
“The reason why I say that is, for a lot of the times, my dealings with people with cannabis was more an impairment; that was my concern,” he said.
But when he did find people in possession, the amounts were usually quite small, he added.
“(And) the drug dealing aspect, it wasn’t so much the marijuana that I was after, it was moreso the heavier drugs,” he said.
Black market merchants, he added, tend to be “like a general store – they have it all. So, the big thing was the meth and the cocaine. That’s kind of what I was after…whether they legalized (cannabis) or not back at the time didn’t really make a difference to me.”
Even to this day, legalization “doesn’t make a huge impact” on police protocol, he said, adding it was just a new set of rules that presented police with a learning curve.
As to whether the change might have reduced the number of criminal cases being charged against otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying citizens, he said, “In a small scale, I think it has.”
More specifically regarding youth being charged, he said, “That certainly has reduced.”
But by and large, cannabis had prior to legalization already increasingly been taking a backseat to other police priorities.
“It’s a non issue at this point in time. But even back then, for most experienced police officers, if it was a small amount that was in possession, we usually didn’t lay a charge – it was a warning and you dump it,” he said.
As to whether police were able to redirect resources and investigational efforts on other matters such as property crime, he said there from a street policing perspective hadn’t really been any effect.
Property crime comes and goes, going up one year and levelling off another, and police already allocate a lot of teams to address that, he said.
“Now, with that said, is that a lot of property crime is associated to drugs,” he added. “In the past, it wasn’t so much the marijuana portion; it was mostly the other drugs like meth, cocaine; the more illicit drugs – I would call it more illicit drugs than marijuana. Marijuana was basically a side issue even before legislation.”
What the Canada Cannabis Act in essence allowed, was for Canadians who were so inclined to possess and use cannabis under certain allowable circumstances, he said.
“It’s kind of interesting that people still have this (issue) on their radar,” he said, offering parting thoughts.
“Give it 20 years and this will be no different than alcohol. It’s (already) starting to.”
