Smoke in case you received ’em — simply not right here.
One Lengthy Island city handed a ban on smoking pot in public — a transfer applauded by residents fed-up with the ever-present odor of marijuana who mentioned “there’s a time and place” for the leisure drug.
The town of Glen Cove is outwardly the primary municipality within the state to enact a ban since New York made weed authorized, with the Metropolis Council approving the prohibition at a contentious assembly Tuesday night time.
“You possibly can smoke marijuana in your own home, in your yard, in your buddy’s yard — we’re banning it from public locations like our seashores, our stadium, our parks, locations we deliver our youngsters,” metropolis Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck mentioned, in keeping with video of the assembly.
Underneath the brand new legislation, anyone caught smoking pot in public areas inside metropolis limits outdoors of their houses, together with whereas strolling down sidewalks, shall be slapped with fines of as much as $100 for his or her first offense and $250 for any time after.
Metropolis officers, who beforehand voted to opt-out of permitting hashish gross sales in 2021 and later enacted a zoning legislation in 2023 that considerably restricted the place new smoke retailers may open inside Glen Cove, mentioned the passage is available in response to complaints about what one native known as “the terrible stench” lingering all through city.
“There’s a time and a spot for grownup substances — and our parks, streets, playgrounds and public areas should not the place for marijuana use,” resident Bruce Kennedy instructed the board, likening the ban to restrictions on alcohol consumption.
However some residents known as the legislation unlawful and mentioned it was a determined “cash seize” that targets law-abiding younger individuals who don’t personal houses and aren’t allowed to smoke of their residences, which they mentioned would drive them to both break the legislation or their lease as a way to toke up.
The legislation makes no adjustments to the place smoking tobacco is permitted — which authorized hashish consultants mentioned may violate state rules that lumps marijuana in with different authorized types of smoking.
Different native governments all through Lengthy Island and the state have issued restrictions round smoking hashish, nevertheless, Glen Cove’s ban appears to be the primary and solely in New York that particularly restricts pot use in public whereas leaving native tobacco restrictions untouched.
The state’s Workplace of Hashish Administration mentioned the Clear Indoor Air Act, which covers each marijuana and tobacco in public, gives statewide requirements for the place smoking is and isn’t permitted — however famous that native governments might undertake further smoking restrictions in public areas.
However authorized consultants mentioned critics may need a case to sue over the prohibition.
“Glen Cove’s complete ban on the general public use of hashish merchandise, however not tobacco, is overly broad and more than likely a violation of New York State legislation,” lawyer Jeffrey Buss, who practices within the hashish business, instructed The Put up.
Buss identified that the brand new legislation carves no exceptions for medical marijuana and that town’s definition of public areas contains personal property adjoining public land and out of doors eating places.
“State legislation at the moment prohibits public use in parks, playgrounds and seashores, however particularly excludes personal property and designated smoking areas. As written, the native legislation is topic to problem,” Buss defined.
