Article content continued

Calgarians are left to think that there’s either a tremendous number of drug users among Carra’s constituents, or that the idea of creating zones across the city where pot can be smoked in public was, well, dopey. It would be like arguing libraries are a public necessity, but then only building four of them — all of them within a single ward.

The remaining members of council still have the option of proposing cannabis-smoking areas within their own wards, but they won’t be considered on Oct. 9, days before the legalization of pot. It begs the question of how important the subject is. People have been discreetly smoking pot for years, albeit illegally, without hand holding from city hall at considerable public expense.

Predictably, reaction to even four suggested sites has been swift. Those who live near the areas and visit them with their children are understandably wary of turning portions of the green spaces into legalized drug dens.

Calgarians are accustomed to parks being used for recreation, such as throwing a Frisbee or playing soccer, but not as hotbeds of recreational drugs.

“I’m not particularly keen on them doing it near my son … it’s just not good for little minds,” said Graham Newby of pot smokers this week while visiting the playground at Murdoch Park, one of the proposed sites, with his two-year-old son.

“We come to this park almost daily.”

Just like Newby, Bridgeland resident Marie Carlson isn’t opposed to legalization, but has concerns about Murdoch Park being chosen as a cannabis consumption site.