Pot's a fixture at music fests but what happens when it's legal?

The law has never stopped people from getting high at music festivals. But what changes onfestival grounds when marijuana becomes legal in Canada is still a bit of a mystery.

Will music-loversbe able to bring theirown pot to a festival andsmoke it anywhere they please? Will they be able to buy it on site, just like beer or wine?

If booze rules at these events areany indication, the latter might not happen for a long time.

"It took literally decades for the [alcohol]rules to loosen up," said Dan Malleck, an associate professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., who studies the history of alcohol and drug regulations. "A lot of this is going to come down to what are the rules going to be about smoking in public."

Themarijuana legalization billthe Liberal government tabledThursdaydidn't specifically mentionexactly where Canadians will be allowed to smokebut it did sayorganizations won't be allowedto sellmarijuana, which might put a hitch in anyfestival's plans to sell it. However, the legislationdoesn't clarify if licensed producers could set up atfestivals and sell their goods; the federal Justice Department said that would be up to the provinces and territories to decide.

Malleckdoesn't think festival vendors will be selling marijuana anytime soon. But he knowsmusic festivals will need a plan in place for all the folks carrying pot who want to light uplegally.

'Makes their job a hell of a lot easier'

A few Canadian music festivals have gotten ahead of legalization and already found solutions.

Cannafest, a classic rock festival in Grand Forks, B.C., has a fenced-off area where festival-goers are allowed tosmoke up festival owner ChuckVarabioff doesn't tell them what they can and cannotsmoke in there.

Hesaid police and security havehad no complaints.

"From a security point of view, it sure makes their job a hell of a lot easier," he said.

If his security catches patrons smoking pot elsewhere on site, they tell them to put it out or head to the smoking areaand people have been following the rule, he says.

Varabioff, who runs two marijuana dispensaries in Vancouver,said he came up with the idea for the smoking area because he knew people werebringing pot to the festival anyhow.

"I know a lot of people, and especially a lot of the smokers, they think it's their right just to go and smoke wherever," he said. "You can't come there expecting to smoke pot in front of the stage ... the last goddamn thing I want to do is beat a concert and be breathing in your second-hand smoke."

Pot as a festival money-maker?

Varabioffsays his festival isfar from a "big stoner event" and he doesn't allow anybody to sell marijuana on site, though he says he hopes todo so legally one day.

Alcohol sales can be a big money-maker for festivals andmarijuana could mean even more.

"The discussion has been that it will be a new revenue stream and we don't feel it will risk causing harm to our guests," said Jimmy Bundschuh, the founder of B.C.'s Shambhala, a festival known for its harm-reduction approach to drugs.The festival doesn't sell alcohol.

Bundschuhknows he won't be able to sell marijuana at Shambhalaright away but says he'sbeen thinking about what willhappenwhen it first becomes legal.

He said any addedsecond-hand smoke "could be offensive" to some of his patrons. So depending on the law, he says it's possible his event would follow Cannafest's approach andcreate a designatedarea where people could smoke. He says it's all about "respecting other people."

'There is no one that has the expertise'

The issue is on the radar of other Canadian festivals, too, like Wayhome, held north of Toronto. Organizers are waiting for more direction from the province and looking intohow other festivals have handled it in states where marijuana is legal, like Colorado and Washington.

There's no one answer.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado lets peoplebring in their own pot but asks them to smoke it on the outskirts. Seattle's Capitol Hill Block Party alsoallows marijuana, but you can't smoke it anywhere.

And Sasquatch Festival inGeorge, Wash., and Telluride Blues & Brews Festival in Colorado don't allow it at all.

Gary Genosko,aprofessor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology who'sstudiedadministrative surveillance of alcohol and drugs, thinks music festivals will start "on the side of extreme isolation," adopting what he calls "dope moats" forsmokers, like the one at Cannafest.

But that approach has its problems, he said, because "dope smokers" haven't traditionallybeen corralled at music festivals.

He said there's reallyno one with expertise in managing marijuana at festivals.

"This is really a vacuum that we are entering."