By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

City of Lethbridge preparing for pot legalization

Feb 20, 2018 | 4:43 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Now that the provincial government has released its regulations on cannabis sales for private retailers, the City of Lethbridge will be working towards incorporating those requirements.

Director of Planning and Management, Jeff Greene, says there’s a lot of work to be done in the coming months.

“We’ve been anticipating this from the province for some time, so in the meantime we’ve been doing our own research to get ready for whatever it might entail.

“Now that the rules are a little bit more clear from what the province is expecting, we’ll be taking that information and seeing how we can marry that with local land-use bylaw requirements. So, there will likely end up being some local land-use bylaw changes that we’ll introduce to City Council in the summertime, in all likelihood, just to be ready for the retail permissions, if you will, that are going to be allowed in the province.”

On Feb. 16, Provincial Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley, set out the rules and regulations for private sales of cannabis. Beginning March 6, the AGLC will accept retail cannabis license applications. Those with successful applications will have to undergo background checks and specialized training.

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There must also be a mandatory 100 metre buffer between stores selling cannabis, and schools or provincial health care facilities.

Stores may operate the same hours as liquor stores, from 10 a.m. until 2a.m. Anyone consuming or buying the maximum 30g in a single transaction must be 18 years of age, or over.

Greene explains that in Lethbridge, so far, they’ve had at least a dozen parties interested in setting up retail stores, which will likely be in commercial districts, just like liquor stores. The province will also sell pot, but online only.

“Any land use bylaw changes will be the subject of a public hearing. That is the legislative requirement. The province’s regulatory requirements that they’ve established are pretty straightforward, so I don’t really see a lot of challenges associated with introducing that… but until it becomes law in July or August, because it seems a little uncertain right now….we will just try and get ourselves in a position to be ready when it is law so we can actually entertain applications as they come in.”

And that means that even when cannabis becomes legal, there won’t likely be any stores ready to go in Lethbridge right away.

For more on the provincial regulations go to: http://www.alberta.ca/cannabis-framework.aspx#p6241s3