Halifax may be headed for a showdown with some of its biggest property owners over the issue of smoking amid a smoldering battle that includes counterfeit smoking stickers.

The city has enacted a sweeping smoking ban that covers sidewalks, parks and city-maintained properties. The bylaw is partly meant to tackle public cannabis use, but it has angered many tobacco smokers.

Halifax has created designated smoking areas -- almost 20 by the end of day two. But some smokers are taking the matter into their own hands by creating counterfeit smoking permitted stickers.

The problem is serious enough that the city’s legal team has contacted the police.

HRM senior communication advisor Brendan Elliott told CTV News Atlantic: "We are looking into whether or not we can put a cease-and-desist order out there.”

Universities are also calling on the city to create more designated areas. One councillor says the schools should create their own areas.

"The universities are coming to us and saying, ‘We want to have smoking areas all around the campus,’ and you have to look at them and say, ‘Why is the only place people should smoke the two-metre wide sidewalk, when you have a 60 acre campus right there,’” Coun. Waye Mason told CTV News Atlantic.

Dalhousie has a no-smoking policy, but says it’s looking at how the legalization of cannabis applies to its campus.

In a statement, Saint Mary’s University told CTVNews: "The university is currently assessing different ways to address the bylaw change and will have an update for the university community in the near future.”

But top city officials say, in some cases, municipal property won’t be the best place to smoke.

"The best solution for many private property owners is to have designated smoking areas within their own private property,” said Jacques Dube, HRM’s chief administrative officer.

Smoking is already banned on hospital property and officials insist they won’t be applying for convenient spots nearby.

Nova Scotia Health Authority spokeswoman Holly Gillis told CTV News that it has not applied for any outdoor designated smoking areas and its tobacco policies do not permit them.

The city will only affix smoking permitted stickers to smoking receptacles and residents can check a map online to make sure they are lighting up in a legal area.

--- With files from CTV Atlantic's Bruce Frisko and The Canadian Press