Smoke if you got ’em — just not here.
One Long Island town passed a ban on smoking pot in public — a move applauded by residents fed-up with the ever-present smell of marijuana who said “there’s a time and place” for the recreational drug.
The city of Glen Cove is apparently the first municipality in the state to enact a ban since New York made weed legal, with the City Council approving the prohibition at a contentious meeting Tuesday night.
“You can smoke marijuana in your house, in your yard, in your friend’s yard — we are banning it from public places like our beaches, our stadium, our parks, places we bring our children,” city Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said, according to video of the meeting.
Under the new law, anybody caught smoking pot in public spaces within city limits outside of their homes, including while walking down sidewalks, will be slapped with fines of up to $100 for their first offense and $250 for subsequent infractions.
The city of Glen Cove has passed a new law that bans smoking marijuana in public. Facebook/Glen Cove, New York
City officials, who previously voted to opt-out of allowing cannabis sales in 2021 and later enacted a zoning law in 2023 that significantly restricted where new smoke shops could open within Glen Cove, said the passage comes in response to complaints about what one local called “the awful stench” lingering throughout town.
“There is a time and a place for adult substances — and our parks, streets, playgrounds and public spaces are not the place for marijuana use,” resident Bruce Kennedy told the board, likening the ban to restrictions on alcohol consumption.
But some residents called the law illegal and said it was a desperate “money grab” that targets law-abiding young people who don’t own homes and aren’t allowed to smoke in their apartments, which they said would force them to either break the law or their lease in order to toke up.
Some legal experts warn the city’s new law may be illegal since state law generally allows marijuana to be smoked anywhere that tobacco is allowed to be consumed. Victor Moussa – stock.adobe.comThe law makes no changes to where smoking tobacco is permitted — which legal cannabis experts said might violate state regulations that lump marijuana in with other legal forms of smoking.
Other local governments throughout Long Island and the state have issued restrictions around smoking cannabis, however, Glen Cove’s ban seems to be the first and only in New York that specifically restricts pot use in public while leaving local tobacco restrictions untouched.
“You can smoke marijuana in your house, in your yard, in your friend’s yard — we are banning it from public places like our beaches, our stadium, our parks, places we bring our children,” Glen Cove Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said. Glen Cove NYThe state’s Office of Cannabis Management said the Clean Indoor Air Act, which covers both marijuana and tobacco in public, provides statewide standards for where smoking is and is not permitted — but noted that local governments may adopt additional smoking restrictions in public spaces.
But legal experts said critics might have a case to sue over the prohibition.
“Glen Cove’s total ban on the public use of cannabis products, but not tobacco, is overly broad and most likely a violation of New York State law,” attorney Jeffrey Buss, who practices in the cannabis industry, told The Post.
Buss pointed out that the new law carves no exceptions for medical marijuana and that the city’s definition of public spaces includes private property adjoining public land and outdoor restaurants.
“State law currently prohibits public use in parks, playgrounds and beaches, but specifically excludes private property and designated smoking areas. As written, the local law is subject to challenge,” Buss explained.
