West Nipissing bans pot smoking in public

Greater Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie put cannabis and tobacco under the same smoking ban

Cannabis might be legal, but there is now one northern Ontario town where you can’t smoke it on the sidewalk.

West Nipissing passed a bylaw this week banning the smoking of pot from almost any public place, including streets and parking lots.

The same bylaw restricts the smoking of tobacco, but you can light up a cigarette many places you can’t smoke a joint.

West Nipissing Mayor Joanne Savage says the goal is to strike a “counter balance” between the rights of individuals and the rights of the larger community.

“You want to not expose your youth to it, you want to mitigate risk, you want to try to control the usage,” she says.

Town councillor YvonDuhaime wishes the bylaw could have gone further.

He would like to see the smoking of marijuana banned from apartment buildings as well.

“We all know what it smells like and it smells bad and we all have to live with that. And I don’t agree. I don’t agree one bit and that’s something I wish we could have tackled,” says Duhaime.

By Erik White

Read more here: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/cannabis-smoking-ban-bylaw-west-nipissing-greater-sudbury-1.5064044