It has been two months since the legalization of cannabis in Canada, and the Weyburn Police Service finally issued their first ticket for pot just last Monday.

Deputy Police Chief Rod Stafford said it is par for the course in the daily beat of the WPS.

“We certainly have been checking about the same amount of vehicles, or perhaps even more in general, than we do, because of the time of year, but given that other agencies have written tickets very close to the implementation, I guess we’re very slow to catch up, which is not a bad thing,” said Stafford.

Police issued a ticket for possession of cannabis in a motor vehicle, which wouldn’t be a problem had the individual not been smoking it.

Possession, generally, is legal within reason.

“You could surmise that perhaps it didn’t come from a lawful distributor, because we don’t have any in the southeast yet, but that aside, whether it did or didn’t, you can possess up to 30 grams, without issue,” explained Stafford.

The question of where the driver got the cannabis wasn’t the issue, it was the use of it within the vehicle. Stafford said whether or not we have a dispensary in Weyburn, it’s still only legal to transport cannabis from one place of lawful consumption to another place of lawful consumption.

Much like alcohol, there are rules for transporting it.

“It’s the same treatment as alcohol, so you can’t drive around with alcohol in your car, you can’t walk around with alcohol on the street, and the same rules virtually apply to cannabis,” he said.

Smoking cannabis in a vehicle would be equivalent to having open alcohol in a car while driving.