Miami City Commissioner Proposes Smoking Ban in Miami Parks, Beaches

Fond of blowing monstrous vape clouds on a Miami park bench? Perhaps your preferred place to blaze is on one of the city's idyllic beaches?

Well, pack up your paraphernalia and head home because a newly proposed Miami ordinance would prohibit smoking of any kind — including puffing on cannabis, tobacco, and vape products — in the city's parks and beaches.

The measure on the commission's May 11 meeting agenda is intended to keep the city's public spaces "safe for everybody," says Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who proposed the ordinance.

"Listen, if you want to smoke a truckload of cannabis, get to your house, or get to some other place and do it," Reyes says in a phone call with New Times. "Don't do it in public or in the park."

(The commissioner quickly clarified that this doesn't mean he condones cannabis use or encourages anyone to partake. "I don't agree with that at all," Reyes insists.)

Saying he has seen people puff tobacco and weed in public parks near children, Reyes believes the measure will address a public safety issue created by the secondhand smoke.

"In instances, I've seen people smoking cigarettes... I have also seen people sharing a joint, as it is called, of marijuana," Reyes says. "There is no need for people, and particularly children, to be next to it."

On the docket for the commission's upcoming meeting, the ordinance would prohibit "smoking and vaping including, but not limited to, the consumption of cannabis, in all of its forms and extract products, in public parks and beaches."

Commissioners Joe Carollo, Christine King, and Alex Diaz de la Portilla have not responded to a request for comment.

Reyes' debut of the ordinance comes nearly a year after the state enacted the Florida Clean Air Act last summer, giving local leaders the power to regulate smoking at public beaches and parks. The law aims "to protect the public from the health hazards of secondhand tobacco smoke." A number of cities have since passed measures banning smoking in public parks and beaches — including Miami Beach, which implemented a smoking ban at all municipal parks and beaches last September.

Under Miami Beach's ordinance, first-time violators caught lighting up in such places could be hit with a $100 fine and up to 60 days in jail.

Reyes says that while the specifics of his proposed ban in the City of Miami, including potential penalties, have yet to be mapped out, they would likely mirror those of neighboring municipalities that already have similar ordinances in place.

"I don't want to be exposed to secondhand smoke, be it from cannabis or tobacco or vaping," Reyes says.

New Times has previously chronicled the city's attempts to thwart the proliferation of medical marijuana centers, as well as Carollo's and Reyes' disenchantment with the devil's lettuce.

Despite medical cannabis being legalized statewide, the city repeatedly blocked one entrepreneur's attempt to get a license for a medical marijuana business in downtown Miami, citing the federal Controlled Substances Act. Last year, commissioners voted to finally allow the man to obtain the certificate he needed to open up a medical marijuana center.