City won't allow pot in parks

Count the city of Carlton among the growing list of communities to pass an ordinance prohibiting marijuana smoking and use in city parks and other areas the act of smoking is already outlawed.

“We’re not trying to control use in public spaces as much as protect people that don’t want to be around it,” Mayor Mike Soderstrom said. “My thought process was parents taking young children to the park and having to walk through clouds of marijuana smoke probably wasn’t the best thing.”

Soderstrom called it a proactive approach and one he sees continuing to unfold across the state.

“It’s a quality of life-type thing,” the mayor said.

The Carlton city council unanimously adopted the measure during its meeting Sept. 13, saying “no person shall use cannabis flower, cannabis products, lower-potency hemp edibles [etc.] … in a public place or in any place prohibited by the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act.”

The ordinance also outlaws vaporizing or smoking cannabis … “in any location where the smoke, aerosol, or vapor would be inhaled by a minor.”

“I have no problem with people using it in the privacy of their own homes,” Soderstrom said. “We’re not anti-marijuana per say. It’s a situation where we’re trying to protect people.”

He compared it to how alcohol regulations dictate where people can use alcohol.

“The city wishes to be proactive in protecting public health and safety by enacting regulations that will mitigate threats presented to the public with public use of cannabis,” the ordinance says.

In its ordinance, Carlton cited the 2023 state law passed by the legislature as the “adult use cannabis bill.” Under the law, the use, possession and personal growing of marijuana became legal Aug. 1.