By Jessie Weisner

MH Stampede will not allow cannabis on grounds

May 22, 2019 | 5:01 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat’s Stampede will be a little bit different this year: cannabis will be legal.

However, there will be no designated cannabis areas on the Stampede grounds, although designated smoking areas for tobacco will remain.

The Stampede’s board of directors sat down in October when cannabis was legalized and decided to implement an outright ban of the substance.

“The decision of the board, and it was contemplated at length back in October when marijuana was legalized, was to quite literally post the grounds prohibiting the consumption of marijuana,” says Jim MacArthur, general manager of the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede. “At that time there was a fair bit of through put into it, research, checking with other fairs and municipalities.”

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MacArthur says the board believes the public consumption of cannabis could bother others who attend the Stampede.

“I think the main thought behind it was that the majority of the people do not consume it,” says MacArthur. “Marijuana smoke is certainly something that can bother other people and so I do appreciate that the general public has been respectful, we haven’t had any problems whatsoever.

Rules around smoking tobacco will be the same as past years, with three designated smoking areas on the grounds.

MacArthur adds the rules around cannabis could be adjusted later on.

“We want to keep up with the times and be modern but we’d like to proceed cautiously and we thank the public for cooperating with us,” says MacArthur.