City councillors decided to apply the same rules to cannabis use as to smoking.
At a city committee meeting Wednesday, councillors discussed options on how to regulate public consumption of marijuana, debating two options from a report.
The committee voted to align regulations on marijuana smoking with tobacco, which received support from anti-smoking advocates.
“We made progress because we’ve achieved alignment. But we will be going to council and asking them now to take one step further,” said Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health.
Hagen said he’d like to see the same restrictions applied to city parks.
“Unfortunately they missed an opportunity to extend that protection to children who attend any city park.”
Once the issue goes to council, councilor Michael Walters believes more restrictions will be imposed.
“When this comes to council, we need to debate an amendment to be more restrictive in public parks and on sidewalks. I don’t think committee went far enough today,” Walters said.
Public consumption of cannabis will be debated in a council meeting in July.
