St. Paul City Council debates limits, penalties on public marijuana use

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

For decades, progressives have fought Big Tobacco at every turn, successfully curbing smoking in bars, restaurants and office buildings in Minnesota while citing the negative health impacts of secondhand smoke.

And for almost as long, many progressives have fought to decriminalize the use of recreational marijuana, noting the disproportionate impact on renters, low-income residents and people of color incarcerated or denied jobs and housing because of minor drug offenses.

The two seemingly contradictory campaigns — restricting smoking and allowing more of it — are squaring off in St. Paul, where city council members have been debating when and where to allow marijuana consumption and what penalties should follow rule-breakers.

St. Paul and Ramsey County already prohibit tobacco use in parks, outside of public buildings and in other city- and county-run spaces.

A proposal before the city council Wednesday would also ban the smoking of marijuana, cannabis and hemp in the city’s public parks and playgrounds, as well as within 25 feet of windows, entrances and exits to both city-owned spaces and private “places of employment.” The proposed ordinance amendment is silent on gummies, seltzers and other edibles.

Violations would be classified as a petty misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $300 fine. The proposed language would allow the director of St. Paul Parks and Recreation to designate certain smoking areas within parks, and it would not apply to sacred religious or cultural practices, such as Native American ceremonies.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate secondhand marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxic and cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke and contains some of those chemicals in higher amounts,” reads the proposed ordinance, sponsored by Council Member Chris Tolbert.

It goes on to say: “St. Paul recognizes that the secondhand effect of smoking tobacco and cannabis in public places possess a threat to public health and safety; and … St. Paul has a commitment to protect community members younger than 21 years old from the exposure to tobacco and cannabis.”

A public hearing was scheduled to begin on a proposed council ordinance shortly after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Letters, social media messages

The debate already has unfolded with emotional charge in emails and letters to the council, as well as public comments on social media.

With DFLers controlling the Legislature, Minnesota this year lifted penalties for recreational marijuana use statewide. Adults age 21 and older can travel in Minnesota carrying up to 2 ounces of cannabis flower, as well as 8 grams of concentrate and 800 milligrams worth of THC-containing edible products, such as gummies and seltzers. They can have up to 2 pounds of cannabis at home, as well as four mature plants, or eight plants in total.

Some critics of the city proposal called it a backslide.

“This ordinance just seems a ridiculous attempt to recriminalize something that never should’ve been illegal in the first place,” said Daniel Phillips, a resident of St. Paul’s Ward 4, in an Aug. 28 email to the council. “I don’t smoke and I don’t particularly like the smell of it, but that’s not reason enough to make it a petty misdemeanor.”

Mike Burke, a resident of Iglehart Avenue, took the opposite tack.

“I smoked 40 years ago and luckily quit,” Burke wrote in a Tuesday email to the council. “I don’t want to smell or ingest the smoke, I don’t want my kids or grandkids to smell or ingest the smoke — at anytime, including when I’m at a park. The park is for everyone. I don’t feel that a person who smokes has the right to inflict the smell and the secondhand smoke on those who don’t want to smell or ingest it.”

Citing the potential impacts of secondhand smoke, the amended ordinance has the support of the Association for Non-Smokers Minnesota, the Minnesota Medical Association and Central Priority Pediatrics, which has offices in Woodbury and Roseville. The Hamline-Midway Coalition, a neighborhood district council, has come out against the proposal after expressing concern about the potential disproportionate impact on renters and the unhoused.

On social media, some of the most impassioned opposition originated with another member of the council.

“The proposed language is so overly broad, it would outlaw smoking cannabis in virtually all public spaces in St. Paul — from parks/trails to sidewalks/parking lots, and more,” said St. Paul City Council Member Mitra Jalali, in a series of back-to-back social media posts last month.

“Unless you own a single-family home private residence … and can afford your own backyard, under this policy, you would likely not be able to use a substance that was just legalized by the state,” she added. “The ordinance would impose a petty misdemeanor on anyone who violates it — a penalty of a hefty fine of up to $300, which if unpaid, goes on your record and can be used to deny employment or housing.”

Jalali issued what she described as a social media “action alert,” calling upon residents to testify in opposition to the ordinance amendment before the council Wednesday.

“In practice, this ordinance will absolutely become an enforcement trap for younger residents, low-income residents and residents of color, who are more likely to be renters and more likely to need public places to use cannabis,” she wrote. “Imposing a petty misdemeanor as a penalty will also cost people their jobs, housing, and perpetuate racial discrimination and criminalization that could have extremely harmful lasting negative impacts on our communities.”

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