Legalization of marijuana: the festivals and major events have initiated a reflection

AFP

Charel Traversy

Monday, march 5, 2018 19:49

UPDATE
Monday, march 5, 2018 19:50

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While the festivals are preparing for their programming, reflections begin on the consumption of marijuana on the different sites since the legalization of this drug should in principle coincide with the holding of several major events.

Will he be allowed to consume in the streets where there are thousands of festival-goers?

“We will not be able to ban it everywhere. It is currently illegal, and at times, in the festivals it has a nauseating smell, which I will not name and I do not personnaliserai not,” said the minister Lucie Charlebois.

About music festivals, the federal government mentions on its website that “under the law, the provinces, [ … ] may establish additional restrictions […] as the restriction of places where one can eat and ways to consume it”.

In its bill 157 to build the quebec Society of cannabis, Quebec addresses the question. It will be “prohibited from smoking cannabis in the tents, the tents […] terraces and sports fields […] including the areas frequented by minors”.

“It would be more advantageous that each city, each municipality can determine the places of consumption on the public square,” says the minister Lucie Charlebois, author of the bill.

“In the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivières, our brand is accessibility. We accept miners everywhere. So it will be forbidden everywhere”, explains the managing director, Dominic Fugère.

The senators, in Ottawa, say they need more time to study the law. The entry into force of legalisation is likely to be pushed back by several weeks. This means that one of the first festivals to manage the new legislation could be the Festival western de Saint-Tite.

With its 600 000 festival-goers, the directorate of the Festival western intends to rely on the guidance from the Grouping of major international events. The REMI would like to have a common policy for all events. But even then, the municipalities could decide otherwise.

“Smoke outside of the site. Go eat and come back after. I think that we are going to organize. This will be banned on the pedestrian street during the Festival de la galette de sarrasin,” explains the mayor of Louiseville, Yvon Deshaies.