Mayor Guy Pilon has stacks of papers on his desk of bylaws, regulations and areas which are no-fly zones for marijuana stores when they come to his city of Vaudreuil-Dorion.
Half of his staff were training on best practices concerning rules of marijuana usage when he spoke to Global News, the other half was slated for training later on in the week.
“People don’t know what all the impacts are,” he said of legalized marijuana. “We will see it in a year or a year-and-a-half.”
One specific situation in Vaudreuil will be interesting to monitor — the city already has bylaws prohibiting drug use in public places. Pilon said it doesn’t plan on changing those bylaws when marijuana becomes legal nationwide.
But Vaudreuil-Dorion has no municipal police force — it relies on the Sureté du Québec to police the area, meaning that the enforcement of the bylaws may be difficult, as the force would have to apply different standards to adjacent municipalities.
Many Vaudreuil residents seem to agree with the law. “I have a son, I have a two-year-old, and I don’t mind what anyone does as long as it’s not around my child,” said Jessy Lyons, a Vaudreuil resident.
Under the bylaws, the fines for using drugs in public start at $200 for a first offence and can climb to as much as $4,000 for repeat offences. Marijuana becomes legal nationwide Oct. 17.
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