The Federal Liberal Government unveiled its Cannabis Act Thursday, April 13, setting guidelines for legalization of marijuana.

The Act proposes that anyone over the age of 18 can possess up to 30 grams of legal cannabis in public, and grow up to four plants per household.

The legislation also addressed impaired driving from marijuana as well as penalties for selling to a minor.

Okotoks Town Councillor Tanya Thorn says now that the legislation is in place, town council needs to start a conversation on rolling out legal marijuana in town.

"Council is going to need to have a conversation around what this is going to look like, and where are we going to go? All three levels of government have a role here in how the workplace safety, enforcement of it all, traffic safety. From my perspective as a municipality I don't want the tax payers at our level to have to fund all of that, we shouldn't be burdened with the permitting inspection and enforcement activities of this all."

The federal government intends to bring the proposed Act into force no later than July 2018, Thorn shares the timeline may be moving too quickly.

"Well I think the biggest issue that I have with where we're going is they don't have all the pieces in place yet, the legislation doesn't exist municipally and provincially on how we're going to handle it. We're rushing this legislation, there's lots of things that need to be in place. From a law enforcement place, how do we test for impairment? From a municipalities perspective we don't have land use bylaws in place yet to deal with all of it, and what those impacts are going to look like."

In addition to legalizing marijuana for recreational use, the government plans to toughen up penalties for impaired driving, and provide RCMP with roadside testing to detect drug impairment.

For more information on the Cannabis Act click here.