Pot talk was big issue in Markham in 2018, could come back in 2019

Legalization of weed Oct. 17 spurred council to call special council meeting to vote on preventing people from smoking it in public places

YorkRegion.com
January 2, 2019
Tim Kelly

Marijuana was a big newsmaker in Markham in 2018 and could continue to make waves in 2019 as well.

The legalization of weed on Oct. 17 spurred Markham city council to hold a special meeting on the eve of the big day--just so it could vote with hours to spare to prevent people from smoking it in public places.

But there were plenty of other highlights, and some would say lowlights too, on the pot file throughout the year in Markham.

You might think the city was overtaken by reefer madness with one now former councillor even wondering if the city could take steps to ban legal pot smoking in private homes.

That idea went up in smoke, but the city did tell the province, on two separate occasions, that it had no interest in hosting cannabis storefront shops when around two dozen open provincewide April 1.

The first time the issue came up was last spring when Mayor Frank Scarpitti jumped to the front of the municipal pack, seemingly before he’d had a chance to engage council, and told the previous provincial government Markham wouldn’t be interested in having marijuana stores.

Then, when the new Doug Ford government was elected in June and said in August that it would give municipalities until Jan. 22 to decide whether they would opt in or out of hosting pot shops, Markham voted 12-1 to say no to doing so early last month.

So now, if you want to smoke pot in Markham, you have to buy it in another municipality or from the online Ontario Cannabis Store, and smoke it in or on private property only.

It has to be said that it didn’t come as a huge surprise that Markham’s councillors expressed almost universal disdain for marijuana legalization.

Many came out as being against the concept in the first place and in a regional councillor and mayoralty debate where the topic came up about two weeks before the Oct. 22 municipal election.

Asked by interested onlookers where they stood on smoking cannabis in public places, all 11 candidates running for office said they wanted it restricted to private property. And some said they firmly opposed it being legalized in the first place.

It’s hard to say how many Markham residents he was speaking for, but regional Coun. Joe Li spoke loud and clear when he said at the debate, the decision to legalize cannabis was “the worst law ever imposed by the federal government. This smoking should stop.” And he added he hoped the next federal government overturns the law and bans legalization of marijuana.

“This is a bad law and should be revoked whenever the next government comes in.”

The issue going forward into the new year will be whether the city will reconsider and eventually decide to opt in and allow a city the size of Markham to have a cannabis store.

Or whether there any kind of legal challenge to the bylaw prohibiting people from smoking a legal product outside of their homes.

Finally, it remains to be seen whether or not there are many complaints raised with the city or with York Regional Police about pot smoking in public in Markham in contravention of the bylaw passed Oct. 16.