{"id":45426,"date":"2018-10-13T10:59:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T16:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=45426"},"modified":"2021-02-08T07:43:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T14:43:56","slug":"sait-warns-pot-smokers-to-butt-out-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/10\/13\/sait-warns-pot-smokers-to-butt-out-on-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"SAIT warns pot smokers to butt out on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Up in Smoke<\/strong>: Keith Fletcher, a Film and Video Production student, smoking at one of SAIT’s designated smoking zones on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. (Photo by Alex Hamilton\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

T<\/span>his semester, SAIT is pairing a strict ban on campus consumption of marijuana with new designated smoking areas for tobacco, meant to reduce second-hand smoke.<\/p>\n

A<\/span>lthough marijuana is set to be legalized on Wednesday, Oct. 17, students will not be allowed to smoke it anywhere on campus, according to a SAIT spokesman. This ban includes residence buildings, which are already smoke-free.<\/p>\n

As for medical marijuana, SAIT spokesman Chris Gerritsen said that it would continue to be monitored by Accessibility Services<\/a> on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

According to Gerritsen, this policy follows the Alberta government\u2019s Cannabis Framework<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The framework states that cannabis \u201cwill be prohibited in any place where tobacco is restricted\u201d as well as \u201cin or within a prescribed distance from any\u2026school property.\u201d<\/p>\n

SAIT\u2019s cannabis policy is also in line with the City of Calgary\u2019s recent bylaw banning<\/a> all public consumption. The University of Calgary and Mount Royal University have also banned consumption.<\/p>\n

However, the provincial Cannabis Framework does not strictly include post-secondary schools in its definition. The University of Lethbridge (U of L) will have five designated spots<\/a> on campus for students to smoke or vape cannabis, with the intent of harm reduction.<\/p>\n

The U of L\u2019s policy does not apply to its affiliated campus at Bow Valley College in Calgary. Like the other Calgary schools, Bow Valley will impose a total ban on consumption at its downtown site.<\/p>\n

Gerritsen said that the new designated smoking areas for tobacco use were unrelated to the cannabis policy.<\/p>\n

The zones were established after consultation with students, apprentices and SAIT employees, he said.<\/p>\n

The zones are located outside the Campus Centre, Aldred Centre, and Clayton Carroll Automotive Centre, as well as the Thomas Riley, E.H. Crandell, and Senator Burns buildings.<\/p>\n

SAIT\u2019s consultation, which was conducted last school year, found that more than 50 per cent of respondents preferred designated smoking areas over a total smoke-free campus, or the old policy, which banned smoking within 10 feet of any building.<\/p>\n

Gerritsen said there were common complaints about walking through clouds of second-hand smoke on campus.<\/p>\n

Keith Fletcher, a first-year Film and Video Production student, said in an interview that he didn’t find the policy a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they decide they want a clean campus, it\u2019s fine,\u201d said Fletcher, who was interviewed in a designed smoking area.<\/p>\n

He said that he liked the \u201cbit of exercise\u201d walking to the zones would provide.<\/p>\n

The zones also had a harm-reduction effect, said Fletcher.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They\u2019re] going to encourage me to quit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Student Sarah Arrowsmith, an ex-smoker who was vaping near a designated smoking zone, had a more negative reaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think [the zones] get used as much as SAIT would like them to,\u201d said Arrowsmith, a first-year Architectural Technologies student.<\/p>\n

Arrowsmith believed vaping was exempt, but it is regulated the same as smoking on campus.<\/p>\n

She added that she was doubtful the small glass enclosure outside the Senator Burns Building could accommodate the number of smokers in the vicinity.<\/p>\n

Gerritsen said that the new smoking policies would \u201ctake some time,\u201d but described them as a \u201cgood step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the cannabis ban and smoking areas will be regulated by the non-academic misconduct section of SAIT\u2019s Student Code of Conduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This semester, SAIT is pairing a strict ban on campus consumption of marijuana with new designated smoking areas for tobacco, meant to decrease second-hand smoke. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":45430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Cannabis and Smoking AH","footnotes":""},"categories":[1362,711,1065,13,2,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cannabis","8":"category-featured","9":"category-mount-royal-university","10":"category-news","11":"category-campus-2","12":"category-u-of-calgary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45426"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59965,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45426\/revisions\/59965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}