Written by: Srijani Datta, Assistant News Editor

 

In response to B.C. legalizing cannabis, SFU has designated two temporary areas on Burnaby campus for cannabis-smoking.

One area is at the intersection of the Science Road and South Campus Road; the other is in the campus residential area, between Shell House and McTaggart-Cowan Hall. These areas are separate from the areas designated for smoking tobacco. There will be no such areas at the Surrey and Vancouver campuses, as they are located in urban centres, and therefore fall under municipal smoking regulations.

SFU employees are expected to continue follow existing SFU policies and WorkSafeBC regulations, which ban all substance-induced impairment at work.

SFU administration asks students who must use medical cannabis to register with the Centre for Students with Disabilities. This is meant to help the university “assist in ensuring appropriate accommodations within learning environments.”  said Dr. Tim Rahilly, vice-provost and associate vice-president, students and international, in his emailed announcement.

Rahilly additionally informed that the university will provide “reasonable accommodations for medical cannabis consumption on a case-by-case basis.”

SFU communications and Marketing sent out an emailed Cannabis Policy update on behalf of Sandi de Domenico, AVP Human Resources and Mark LaLonde, Chief Safety Officer. The update mentioned that the University was still reviewing its policies to analyze how best to update it to reflect the changes made by the new legislation.

Rahilly stated that the university’s first priority is to create the “safest conditions possible” for the SFU community, and this will be reflected in the latest policies. He continued that students, faculty and staff will also be consulted on the draft policies. The details of this consultation process will be released over the next few months.

“We are also working on developing a community education/awareness plan to inform our campus community for when our new policy is ready,” said SFU communications associate Justin Wong in an emailed statement to The Peak.

Wong mentioned in his statement that the university aims to have the new policies finalized by early 2019.

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