Campus rules on alcohol and pot need to be rewritten

Good grief, the implications of legalising pot are mind-blowing. For example, when the new academic year begins in September, cannabis will be as legal as alcohol. This means that across Canada, universities have been trying to write new rules to reflect that.

As it is with alcohol sales, the legal age for possessing and buying pot will depend on the province and varies between 18 and 19 years. Hence students will be allowed to buy and consume it. The legal age to purchase alcohol is 21 across the US, as it is for cannabis in the nine states and Washington, DC, which have already legalised marijuana for recreational use.

About two million students are enrolled at Canada’s universities and colleges. Polls say that one in four young adults use cannabis.

Ideally, universities would have the equivalent of a campus bar, but set up for cannabis. Apart from where to sell cannabis on campuses, university administrators also need to consider if students should be allowed to grow marijuana plants on their windowsills. And what about setting up smelly, electricity-hungry, four-plant grow ops? What about edibles?

To date – mid-March 2018 – no Canadian university had decided.