While the Town of Cochrane is busy discussing marijuana on a regulatory level, conversations are flowing on a personal level as well. Yesterday, Cochrane Family & Community Support Services hosted a lunch program entitled “Cannabis Legalization and Our Community” at the Seniors on the Bow Centre. "We knew that cannabis legalization was an issue that most communities across Canada were talking about,” said Annemarie Tocher, resource center coordinator for the town.

"When we did our initial meetings in January, Seniors on the Bow expressed an interest in making a conversation available at their location."

The free event evoked an open dialogue between various members of Cochrane’s senior community and mental health & addiction professionals.

"We're doing it in partnership with Alberta Health Services, and we have a Boys and Girls Club representative on the committee, as well as a professional from the Primary Care Network who is involved in the project,” Trocher added.

Yesterday’s event, which ran one-and-a-half hours, is the first of three featuring the same itinerary. The other two follow next month. Tocher is hoping that keeping the same programming but changing up the location will prompt different conversations.

"The next two dates are June 7 and 12. On the seventh, we're holding it at Spray Lakes where we'll be looking for people using the recreation facilities, parents of youth there for activities,” said Trocher. “The following meeting on the 12th, we’re holding at the Legion.”

In addition to tackling the many questions that Cochrane residents have when it comes to marijuana legalization, the three scheduled sessions are a bit of a test of Family & Community Support Services’ “Living in Community with Diverse Views” public dialogue program.

"At first, we thought it was going to be more education-focused, but it turns out it's actually about supporting healthy dialogue around controversial issues, and cannabis happened to be a topic we're focusing on,” Trocher added. “The research is actually mostly around what is a supportive process for dialogue when there are likely opposing or very diverse opinions."

“To remain healthy communities, we need to be able to listen with empathy to others quite different than our own,” reads the program’s mandate.

Said Trocher, "We'll be listening as facilitators for some takeaways for follow-up in our community. If we're hearing from people that they really do want education around cannabis and the risks and benefits of usage, and medical versus recreational use, we as a group will take that away and look at what our resources are to provide that down the road."

Registration for the second and third sessions of “Cannabis Legalization and Our Community” can be done through Family & Community Support Services’ phone number at 403-851-2250.