The federal government will soon be legalizing marijuana, but other levels of government will have to figure out how to regulate it.
A symposium of medical and municipal leaders met in Halifax Friday. Media was not allowed inside, but they did come out to discuss the issue.
Nova Scotia Chief Medical Officer of Health says marijuana regulation is important.
"We need to create access that's not profit-driven,” says Dr. Robert Strang. “And our main objective is to protect public health and safety while allowing adults to have access to legal cannabis."
The mayor of Aspen says legal pot is a social experiment for his home state of Colorado.
"Shops are very much like liquor stores, we have eight of these shops in our town, we have five liquor stores, but it's getting to be part of the local fabric,” says Steve Skadron.
Skadron says that during three years of legal pot in Aspen, a free-market approach has been applied, but some parents have asked for more regulation.
“One of the bumps was the increased appearance of marijuana in the high school, and that's a serious concern."
It is expected that the party elected in the Nova Scotia provincial election next week, will get a lot of pressure from municipalities, to make policy decisions about the sale of marijuana.
"There’s no real provincial plan at all, the federal dates are coming very quickly. We don't know if it's going to be sold via co-op, non-profit, or completely for profit,” says Digby District Councilor David Tudor."For the municipalities, we do have some zoning laws that would come into effect, like whether or not it would be close to a school, a playground, or hours of operation"
Some municipalities say a portion of income from the sale of marijuana should go back to communities.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ron Shaw
