The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is already preparing for when the recreational use of marijuana is made legal across Canada.
Director of Health Promotion Nicole Dupuis says they are waiting to see what protocols will be laid out on the provincial level — but that doesn't mean the conversation on how pot should be handled isn't underway.
Dupuis says the health unit is already networking with other agencies to create new policies and expects, like cigarettes, smoking marijuana in public spaces is likely to be regulated.
"Cannabis use and driving, we're working with our police partners on that and around education," says Dupuis. "Certainly youth access, cannabis can have quite a negative effect on youth. Also smoking in public spaces, we do get complaints about that already for cannabis use in multi-unit-dwellings."
With 10-months left before the legalization of marijuana, police have already began to release safe use policies, and the province recently announced sales would be restricted to government run facilities.
Additional funding has been promised to law-enforcement to adapt to the change, a benefit Dupuis hopes is extended to public health officials as well.