T-shirts drawing attention for cannabis survey

There is still work to do, but the City of Penticton says early survey results show want to have a say in developing the rules for retail cannabis sales and public use

The WEED like to hear from you survey was launched on April 16, and in the first week, nearly 800 surveys were completed, along with hundreds of new registrations on shapeyourcitypenticton.ca, the city’s online engagement platform.

”The slogan ‘WEED like to hear from you.’ seems to be setting the right tone as we are hearing from all walks of life including many people that have not previously been involved in City engagement activities,” said JoAnne Kleb, engagement strategist.

Related: WEED like to hear from you

Staff took advantage of 4/20 (April 20), an important day in cannabis culture, to head out into the community discussing what legalizing cannabis could mean to Penticton as well as to promote participation in the survey.They visited the community centre, the Okanagan lakeshore, downtown businesses, as well as the 4/20 gathering at Okanagan Lake Park. Staff also visited the Penticton Senior’s Drop-In Centre on Tuesday.

Related: VIDEO: Smokers talk pot rules at annual 4-20 event

Early results from the survey show that the majority of people agree that regulating and legitimizing retail cannabis sales will be good for Penticton.

‘There is more alignment on this topic than one might expect,” says Kleb. “We’re off to a good start but would like to hear from more citizens.It’s important that we hear from as many people as possible as the feedback we gather will be shaping the City’s policies.”

The survey is the first step in the engagement program. With the feedback collected, staff will develop draft policies that will be shared with the community and discussed with affected stakeholder groups before a recommendation is made to Penticton city council.

The city has also received a great response to the t-shirts used to promote the campaign.

“Just about everywhere we go online and in person, we get requests for extra T-shirts,” said Kleb.”We are going to see how we can turn that interest into more survey completions.”

The city is going to hold a draw for the exclusive t-shirts when the survey ends.Anyone interested in entering the draw is asked to share the city’s survey post on Facebook or Twitter as well as complete the survey before May 4. Paper copies are also available at City Hall and the library for anyone not able to complete it online.