One Calgarian has urged city council to further penalize people openly using illicit drugs, a proposal that reflects parts of a bylaw already postponed by city hall. 

A citizen proposal submitted to city council earlier this month echoed a bylaw request deferred in the summer, adding to the conversation about what could be done to curb illicit drug use. 

Downtown resident Rod Coulter became the owner of Kings Fitness after buying out and taking over the Fifth Avenue Club in 2022. Between living nearby and operating the gym, located on 6 Avenue SW, he said that he has seen substance use and social disorder worsen firsthand. 

“What I see in three blocks, let alone what’s happening across our city, is absolutely disgusting,” said Coulter.

He named instances like public indecency happening in his apartment complex, watching drug exchanges happen, and once having to help a woman whose car was being jacked in what he said appeared to be an illegal substance-related escape plan. 

Coulter said he understands the police are working with the resources they have, but criticized new initiatives like Operation Order, which he said have caused a “leaf blower effect,” pushing disorder from one end of the city to another. 

He said he had asked the police about this before, and their response prompted him to present to elected officials what could be done to fill the enforcement gap in the drug context.

“There’s no law in place for them to charge these guys that are openly smoking their crack and their meth and their whatever,” said Coulter. 

“That’s insanity. Are you kidding me?”

Enforcement-forward approach to tackling open drug use

Drug possession, production, and trafficking are criminal offences regulated federally under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Aside from this and city bylaws banning cannabis being used outside of private property, few laws prohibit the public use of illicit drugs. 

The Public Behaviour Bylaw regulates social behaviours in public spaces, such as fighting, urinating, loitering, harassment, and the visibility of weapons and noxious substances, like pepper and bear spray.

What this bylaw does not include is the open use of illicit drugs, which is what Coulter’s citizen proposal recommended adding. The Sept. 17 document suggested amending the bylaw to prohibit the visibility and consumption of controlled substances in public spaces.

His proposal drew on Edmonton’s Public Spaces Bylaw, approved in February 2025, which gave peace officers the authority to direct a person to stop and made the offence punishable by a $25 fine.

Coulter’s bid took this one step further. While keeping police and peace officers’ authority to interrupt the act, he suggested a $250 fine for first-time offenders and fines of up to $750 for repeat offenders, in addition to a mandatory court appearance.

The pitch concluded by emphasizing referrals to provincial assessment and treatment services, such as those offered by Recovery Alberta, and, if necessary, through the Compassionate Intervention Act. 

“That’s where they can introduce them to the provincial program that just got started, which I think is amazing,” said Coulter. 

“We need all of the different areas to work together.”

With Calgary peace officers currently being unauthorized to intervene with open drug use, he said that this has essentially “neutered” an officer’s ability to take substances off of the streets. One city councillor said this is a speed bump that is under discussion at city hall. 

Citizen proposal mirrors parts of under-review bylaw

Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt said that, when the citizen proposal was brought to his attention, it reminded him of a deferral request received in June. The bylaw was first drafted last term and suggested different enforcement strategies related to open drug use. 

He explained that while police officers are already permitted to handle illicit substances, City of Calgary peace officers are not, which is why the bylaw was postponed. That gave city administration time to examine what would be needed to grant this authority. 

The administration is also researching the impact of the Sheldon M. Chumir supervised consumption site closure, how the Compassionate Intervention Act has been implemented since, and any challenges that municipalities with similar bylaws have faced.

City council is scheduled to receive an update on this by the end of the year, and although Coun. Schmidt empathized that the political back-and-forth is time-consuming and “frustrating,” he said that it’s important that “we get it right.”

“We need that ability to innovate a little bit in how we do this,” he said. 

“Really, what it comes down to is we need support. We need mental health treatment, addiction treatment, and people need housing.”

Coulter agreed this is a “social issue” and that those aspects would have to be considered when finding a solution. However, he said that he has reached his bandwidth, which is why he believes an enforcement-forward approach is needed. 

“It needs to be taken at an enforcement level because they’re doing something illegal on our streets, which is causing chaos and fear and all these other things,” said Coulter. 

“But the beautiful thing about that enforcement is it opens the door to our provincial program, which leads to recovery.”

Despite the deferred bylaw and citizen proposal reading similarly on paper, Schmidt pointed out that the bylaw includes community court as a key difference. He said that he would be inclined to support Coulter’s proposal if it named offering this to offenders alongside treatment.

“This bylaw, it could be very effective if it is one other way that they can have that interaction next to those resources,” said Schmidt. 

“If you don’t have those things, then it is just simply transporting people from jail, back to shelters, back to the street, back to jail, to shelters, to the street — that’s an expensive cycle with very, very few results.”