Smell and crime are on top of Central Albertans’ minds when it comes to marijuana production facilities.
Red Deer County recently gave the green light to county’s first marijuana production plant. STIGMA Pharmaceuticals is located in Clearview Industrial Park, south of Red Deer County Emergency Services building.
See related: First marijuana production plant in Red Deer County will open in fall
Treena Miller, manager of current planning at Red Deer County, said both federal and county regulations are in place to address concerns.
“Like they (production facilities) are not to emit odour, noise and light that may have a negative impact to adjacent site,” she said.
She said county received two marijuana production facility applications around the summer of 2017. One of the application was eventually withdrawn and the other one was denied by the county.
Miller said the conversations around those applications gave the county some insight on what some of the ratepayers’ concerns are: security, smell, traffic, water, and sewer needs.
Two Red Deer County staff members toured an existing marijuana production plant in Mountain View County recently. Miller said the two staff members confirmed the smell was contained to the inside of the facility. The same is expected for production plants in the county.
She said marijuana production facilities have to follow federal government regulations like securing the site.
“When you look at the federal regulations you see the security (aspect) is quite strict,” she said.
The county regulations reiterates some of the federal regulations.
“Like all loading facility shall be enclosed in the building because we don’t want to have any waste materials outside the building which could be enticing,” said Miller.
Residents are asked to reach out to county administration for any concerns or questions regarding rules around marijuana production plants.
mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com
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