As the days tick down until the federal government’s proposed marijuana legalization, the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia is asking the province to follow New Brunswick’s lead in terms of rules around cultivation of marijuana in apartments.
The report released by the New Brunswick Working Group on the Legalization of Cannabis earlier this summer recommended that landlords be free to prohibit the cultivation of cannabis in rented premises by including the prohibition in a lease agreement.
Kevin Russell with IPOANS said it’s not only the properties this call is for.
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“We’ve heard from a number of tenants, tenants with respiratory disease, tenants with young families, seniors, tenants who are non-smokers and they’re expressing their concerns over this associated health risk with drifting second-hand marijuana smoke,” Russell said.
Russell said the association is also asking the province to go one step further by allowing property owners to extend the prohibition on tobacco smoke in apartments to include use of marijuana.
With the deadline for legalization coming soon — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week the government is set on passing new legislation legalizing marijuana in the summer of 2018 — Russell said the province still sits in an “unknown environment.”
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“We’re not sure what’s going to happen so it’s a little bit uneasy,” he said. “We’d like to see clarity as any business would to exactly what the rules are and how they’re interpreted.”
The association is also asking the province’s working group on marijuana legalization to take multi-unit dwellings into consideration when drafting regulations.
A response from the province was not received by publication.
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