Budding concerns? Some P.E.I. municipalities have questions about pot legalization

Some municipalrepresentatives saymarijuana legislation is happening too fast, and with too many unanswered questions.

The concerns were raised during the semi-annual general meeting of the P.E.I.Federation of Municipalities, which included talks about upcoming legalization.

Bobbi Jo Flynn, a policy analyst with the provincial department of Justice and Public Safety, was invited to speakonhow municipalities need to prepare for legalization and itspotential challenges.

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She told municipal leadersthat among those challenges will be the need to deal with a tighttime frame, with legalization coming in July 2018, and an ever evolving framework oflegislation.

"We haven't heard a whole lot tomunicipalities yet because they're still working on a lot of the details," said President of the Federation of P.E.I. Municipalities Bruce MacDougall. "It's coming soon and we need to be ready."

MacDougall said one of the concerns he's hearing from communitieshas to do with the cost of policing after legalization.

"We as a municipality, we always seem to be struggling and asking for money," he said. "Well this is something that we're not sure what [policing is] going to cost and what it's going to mean for municipalities."

'It's a lot of unknowns'

Montague CAO Andy Daggettsaid he's concerned that once legal, some people might choose to use pot to self-medicate for mental health conditions. So, he'd like to see additional funding for mental health resources before the drug is legalized.

But, he worries concerns like that might not be able to be dealt with before legalization takes place.

"It's a lot of unknowns," said Daggett."We're forcing this legislation through and it's a very expedited timeline.

"You can't know everything, I understand that, but when you're trying to push things, there's a lot of stuff that gets overlooked."

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