Cannabis culture is on its way to Saskatchewan and one professor of criminology says marijuana could become mainstream just like alcohol has.
“More than half of Canadian high school students have experimented with marijuana. That goes back well over 40 years,” said Neil Boyd, professor at the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University.
Boyd says marijuana is nothing new but people will have to get used to the fact those who use the drug recreationally are no longer criminals.
"I think we're just going to see a lot more openness about it and discussion about it and essentially the product is going to evolve and we're going to see a range of kinds of use," Boyd says.
In Colorado, where marijuana is already legal, there are dispensaries, smoking lounges and retail stores selling everything from pot brownies to cooking oils. The “Colorado Pot Guide” is a marijuana- focused travel guide for visitors.
Officials in Saskatchewan still need to figure out what marijuana products are allowed and if a person can partake in public. The laws here don’t allow smoking inside public places. Alcohol is restricted to private homes, and licensed events.
Neil Boyd wonders where marijuana will fit in, saying "It's a funny substance because in some ways it's going to be regulated like tobacco because if it's smoked it's intrusive and in other ways like alcohol because it can be somewhat intoxicating."
Even though the drug has been around for decades, people may not agree on what form of pot, or if any, is appropriate in a social setting.
Crystal Anderson Macleod is an etiquette and protocol consultant. She says when it comes to business functions, marijuana is one of the hot topics to avoid.
"You're not going to talk about that in a business setting. You could offend the wrong person, you could offend the client, offend your boss and you could lose the business because of it," Macleod says.
In the future, however, marijuana could become part of business and social functions as it has in places like Colorado. At least one entrepreneur there is putting weed into weddings. Macleod says Saskatchewan is likely a few years away from that, but says it is possible.
"Who knows? There might be different types of bars. They're popular at weddings. They have candy bars and popcorn bars and all kinds of things so maybe in the future marijuana bars will become mainstream and the trendy item."
For now, recreational pot remains behind closed doors, but those doors will crack open soon enough and a new social scene could start to emerge.
