Marijuana being added to smoking ban

The thought of objection to a marijuana smoking prohibition in public places evaporated like a puff of smoke at the Carlton County board this week.

Unlike when restaurants and businesses went smoke-free in 2007, and bars followed in 2015, there was no great debate or consternation when the topic of public vaping and marijuana smoking cessation surfaced during a public hearing of the county board on Monday.

The public hearing to change Carlton County’s smoke-free ordinance to reflect legalized adult marijuana use came and went without public comment of any kind.

Nobody even entered a note to the county about it, said auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt, during the hearing Monday in Carlton.

The ordinance protects public entrances within 25 feet. Violation of the ordinance will be characterized as a petty misdemeanor with a fine payable up to $300.

Joanne Erspamer, a public health supervisor with the county, presented the matter to the board during the public hearing. Commissioners had no follow-up questions and later agreed to a November vote on the matter.

“Everything in the ordinance that has been proposed is covered under the updated indoor [clean] air act after cannabis state law was updated and passed at the state level [2023],” Erspamer said, adding that the county ordinance was being brought into “alignment” with state law.

“This reflects safe and smoke-free public places, updating the ordinance to include vaping and cannabis in addition to where tobacco products cannot be used already,” Erspamer said.

The ordinance, titled “Smoke-Free Public Places and Places of Work,” aims “to protect the health, safety and general welfare of the people of Carlton County by better ensuring the ability of citizens to breathe safe and uncontaminated air,” it said.

The ordinance specifies the right to breathe has priority over “the desire to smoke,” and particularly intends to protect vulnerable populations, including employees, children, the elderly, and folks with chronic health conditions.

Language within the ordinance includes a bevy of new terms, including related to “electronic cigarettes,” “vape pens, mods and tank systems,” along with several terms for cannabis. It prohibits burning in public areas any lighted or heated cigarette, pipe or other product used to breathe smoke or vapor.

The ordinance prohibits smoking and vaping at places of work, in public parks and on public trails, streets, sidewalks, enclosed areas used by the general public, including theaters, and also public shopping areas, restaurants, bars and public patios or decks. Exceptions include private residences and private property not generally accessed by the public.

“No person shall use cannabis flower, cannabis products, lower-potency hemp edibles, or hemp derived consumer products in a public place or a place of public accommodation unless the premises is an establishment or an event licensed to permit on-site consumption of adult-use cannabis flower and adult-use cannabis products,” the ordinance said.

With the public hearing having passed uneventfully, the county board agreed to vote on the matter at its 8:30 a.m. Nov. 12 meeting.

The board also has another cannabis-related public hearing set for 4:30 p.m. Nov. 25, to consider a new ordinance outlining how the county will “register” cannabis dispensaries, which are scheduled to come online beginning in 2025. The registrations are “similar to issuing tobacco and alcohol licenses,” DeVriendt said. The registration system is being implemented by the new state Office of Cannabis Management.

The Minnesota law to legalize adult-use marijuana went into effect in 2023.