Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Source: Metro (Calgary, CN AB)
Copyright: 2015 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/Calgary
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4471
Author: Robson Fletcher
Page: 8

CITY MOVES TO REGULATE POT BUSINESSES

Calgary will look at ways to specifically regulate marijuana related 
businesses in an effort to get ahead of the potential proliferation 
of retail locations providing pot-related services - and possibly 
pot, itself - after council agreed unanimously to the move on Tuesday.

"We don't want to end up like the Lower Mainland," Coun. Diane 
Colley-Urquhart said, referring to the situation in the Vancouver 
area that has seen numerous storefronts actually dispensing marijuana 
in addition to selling related products and services.

Chief city planner Rollin Stanley said the Vancouver situation is 
"much different than what's currently happening in Calgary" but added 
it would make sense for the city to "get ahead of" the issue by 
updating land-use bylaws to address marijuana services, specifically.

The plan approved Tuesday calls on city staff to develop "rules that 
manage clustering, proliferation and separation from schools" of 
businesses related to medical marijuana.

The document also calls on the city to "encourage future owners of 
medical marihuana counselling businesses to consult with the local 
community and neighbours and to consider the use of a Good Neighbour 
Agreement."

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said it makes sense for the city to develop a 
policy, given the complicated legal framework in which medical 
marijuana exists.

"It is unbelievable, the legal situation we are in right now," he 
said. Colley-Urquhart agreed. "The federal government has totally 
mismanaged the whole issue of marijuana," she said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom