Second-hand marijuana smoke is an issue waiting in the wings for local politicians and health officials to tackle as soon as it’s legal, says Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins.

“There’s enough secondhand smoke going on out there with marijuana and it’s a very pungent odour,” Desjardins said in an interview.

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“The problem is that it shouldn’t be out there, according to the laws.”

Desjardins raised the issue last week as members of the Capital Regional District’s planning, transportation and protective services committee considered the possibility of including electronic cigarettes in an expanded Clean Air Bylaw.

If approved by the CRD board, the bylaw would extend a ban on smoking tobacco to beaches, parks, playing fields, public squares and playgrounds in the Greater Victoria area, and increase the buffer zone around building doorways, windows and air intakes to seven metres from three.

Committee members endorsed expanding the ban but not a suggestion from Island chief medical health officer Dr. Richard Stanwick to include e-cigarettes in the ban.

Stanwick had suggested that the devices, which produce vapour by heating a flavoured liquid, act as a gateway for youth to become addicted to nicotine. But the committee decided against their inclusion, saying that because the effects are still unknown, including them would be premature.

Desjardins, the committee chairwoman, suggested that the region should consider the issue of secondhand marijuana smoke. Nobody offered even a word of debate.

She said it was understandable that directors wouldn’t want to deal with the issue now.

“I imagine it would have just confused the bylaw because you really can’t regulate [the use of] something that’s illegal, because it shouldn’t have been out there anyway,” Desjardins said.

Still, Desjardins said, she continues to hear from members of the public who are concerned about marijuana smoke.

“What they’ve said to me is the smoke, the smell from marijuana is so much worse. It’s not uncommon to smell it when you go by a park, when you’re walking downtown, and I’m speaking more about Victoria,” she said.

“But it’s out there and how do you deal with it? I guess we have to deal with the legality of it first and then we can regulate it,” Desjardins said.

“If it becomes legal, then we can clamp down on it.”

bcleverley@timescolonist.com