The Charlottetown police chief says he shares some of the mayor's concerns over a lack of information on the federal government's plan to legalize marijuana and how that will affect law enforcement agencies.

Charlottetown police Chief Paul Smith is preparing a report for city council that outlines his concerns. At the top of the list is cost: between the possibility for more forensic tests and specialized officer training, the potential for increased budget pressure is significant.

Smith said it currently costs about $15,000 to have a single officer trained as a Drug Recognition Expert, a specialist who can determine if a person is under the influence of drugs — but Smith said it may not be necessary to have everyone trained to that level.

'An impact on resource'

"You have to be able to have people trained that can utilize the training and skills that they get but also have...on an ongoing basis," he said. "So you don't necessarily have to have everybody trained in that."

Smith says it's hard to start planning before knowing how screening for being under the influence of marijuana will be done, or what the legal limits for driving will be. He also worries how much pressure potentially many more tests will put on the forensic system.

Chief Paul Smith says he and his counterparts across the country are waiting for answers to many questions. (Natalia Goodwin/CBC )

"Is there going to be funding capacity within the federal government within the forensic labs?" he said.

"The additional work with blood testing, waiting on results, things like that. That is going to add time to impaired driving files so that in turn has an impact on resources."

How will it be sold?

The other big component that remains to be decided, in this case by the province, is how the legal pot will be sold on P.E.I.: either under the control of an agency like the Liquor Commission or in dispensaries.

"If it's sold through the umbrella of the liquor commission then that's not a lot for us to have to worry about or deal with," Smith said.

"There's a regime that people are familiar with...versus the potential problems you could have with dispensaries, in terms of again, illicit sales going out the back door."

Smith said there needs to be proper checks and balances in place to ensure illegal groups won't be able to get a licence to grow the plants.

Smith said he's still working on the report he's preparing for Charlottetown city council and didn't have a date in mind for a presentation.