MINNEAPOLIS — Cities large and small are scrambling to come up new rules for where people can smoke or vape marijuana in public spaces when that drug becomes legal in Minnesota next week.
The Lakeville City Council is ahead of the pack, with a vote set to vote Aug. 7 barring smoking and vaping of both tobacco and cannabis products in city parks, on city-owned land, and on public sidewalks. The City of Duluth is set to vote on a similar ordinance Aug. 14.
"It's going to be one of those situations where cities are building the airplane while we're in the air, so there's going to be a lot of unknown, trial and error to see what works," Luke Hellier, Lakeville's mayor, told KARE.
"Most of our downtown businesses butt right up against sidewalks, so that part was important because we didn't want people smoking or vaping in front of businesses when people were walking in, for instance."
The state's new adult-use cannabis law allows smoking on private property and in private events that restrict access to minors. It bara smoking cannabis inside public buildings, and inside vehicles. But it leaves is up to local municipalities to set the rules for smoking in outdoor public places.
The League of Minnesota Cities sent out a memo to member cities advising them to review what rules they have in place for smoking tobacco products in parks and other public places, because those rules can be applied to pot smokers, too.
"You can't prohibit someone from using cannabis on their private property and certain areas, but everything in between seems to be left to the cities now to define where those areas are," Kyle Hartnett, and attorney for the League of Minnesota Cities, explained.
The Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act already bars smoking and vaping tobacco products in a large number of indoor places, such as stores, schools, arenas, bars, and restaurants. But it grants local units of government to power to go beyond that.
"Under the state's Clean Indoor Air Act the cities can pass regulations limiting smoking more than what the state does," Hartnett told KARE.
The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board expects its ban on tobacco use in parks to apply to marijuana products, but the board may decide at a later point to clarify that point.
Target Field and U.S. Bank Stadium are already smoke-free facilities and will add a cannabis ban reminder in communications to ticket holders.
Smoking is still banned inside all buildings in the State Capitol complex, but is allowed outdoors 25 feet from any entrance. At this point, the rules for smoking tobacco on Capitol grounds will apply to smoking cannabis products.
The Minnesota State Fair has already announced that smoking and vaping cannabis will be prohibited on fairgrounds during the 2023 State Fair.
As for Minnesota's state parks and campgrounds? The Department of Natural Resources is still exploring that question and will issue rules at a later time.