The Canadian Cancer Society in Saskatchewan and the Lung Association of Saskatchewan have submitted recommendations regarding upcoming bylaws for marijuana and current bylaws for tobacco, as the provincial government continues to prepare for marijuana legalization.

The list of recommendations include setting the legal age to buy marijuana and tobacco at 21, banning marijuana use in places where smoking cigarettes is also prohibited and banning marijuana use in public places such as restaurant and bar patios, parks, playgrounds, sports fields and any other municipal or provincial place where the public gather.

Donna Pasiechnik, manager of tobacco control for the Canadian Cancer Society in Saskatchewan, said the recommendations were made after public surveys were conducted and research from around the country was taken into consideration.

"We know that second-hand marijuana smoke has many of the same toxic chemicals that cigarette, tobacco, smoke has and so we're very concerned about vulnerable groups like youth and children, and I don't think community members want to see marijuana smoked here, there and everywhere either," Pasiechnik said.

Included in the recommendations are the results of an Ipsos Reid survey of 505 Saskatchewan residents, 82 per cent of whom support banning marijuana smoking in the same places that cigarette smoking is banned.

In regards to setting the legal age at 21, Pasiechnik said "one of the Federal governments objectives in legalizing marijuana was to protect children, and if, in fact, that is the case, then the older they have to be to purchase it the better."

Other recommendations include prohibiting smoking marijuana on the grounds of all post-secondary institutions in the province and setting a mandatory distance between schools and places that sell marijuana and tobacco.

There is also a recommendation to implement the same bylaws across the province for marijuana and tobacco, rather than have municipalities implementing their own bylaws.

The provincial government has not yet introduced its plan for marijuana legalization, which is scheduled to take effect July 1, 2018.