Toking Becomes Legal On (Some) Sidewalks

Starting Thursday, New Haveners will be allowed legally to smoke marijuana while walking on the street — depending on the street — but not in city parks, thanks to a new state law legalizing recreational use of cannabis.

“This should have happened a long time ago,” remarked Eric, a New Havener hanging around the corner of Elm and High streets.

Eric (who declined to give his last name) and other New Haveners reacted to the new law legalizing recreational use of marijuana with a shrug, and some skepticism.

At a City Hall press conference Wednesday afternoon, officials laid out details of how the new state law will work at the street level

It’s simple — recreational pot is legal. And it’s quite complicated.

“Hashing” Out The Details

Mayor Justin Elicker said at the presser that city officials have gotten a lot of questions this week about cannabis legalization, which allows people over 21 years old to carry certain amounts of marijuana on their person and smoke in certain public places.

Standing alongside city Corporation Counsel Patricia King, Interim Police Chief Renee Dominguez, and city Health Director Maritza Bond, the mayor promised to ​“hash out some of the details” of the state law, and ​“nip [any concerns] in the bud.”

Elicker, Bond and Dominguez spent most of the press conference describing where people cannot legally smoke marijuana —e ven after the new state law goes into effect on Thursday.

Places people cannot legally smoke pot include public buildings, most workplaces, state parks, bus shelters, restaurants, healthcare institutions, bars, retail stores, schools, playgrounds, childcare facilities, dormitories, elevators, correctional facilities, and hotels.

And guess what? You can’t smoke tobacco there, either.

“Any place that smoking tobacco is illegal, either smoking or vaping cannabis will also be illegal,” Elicker said.

Can you smoke pot in city parks?

That’s also a ​“no,” Elicker and Bond said.

That city park prohibition comes thanks to local law, not state law. Bond read from a city ordinance passed in 2015 that prohibits smoking tobacco in city parks, other city-owned recreational properties, on public school grounds, and at any other designated city-owned property. Elicker said the city is reading the new state law to mean that that pre-existing local prohibition on tobacco smoking in city parks now also extends to cannabis.

That means no lighting joints at Lighthouse Park or on the Green.

Well what about while walking down the sidewalk?

Depends on the sidewalk, Elicker and King replied.

The new state law prohibits people from smoking pot or tobacco cigarettes while within 25 feet of a door, window, or air intake vent of restaurants, retail stores, and publicly-owned buildings. (The law added those restrictions beyond existing rules for tobacco smoking.)

If you’re walking on the Church Street sidewalk across from City Hall and adjacent to the Green, Elicker said, you’re not in a park or within 25 feet of a door or window — and can therefore legally smoke cannabis.

If you’re walking down Chapel Street downtown, however, odds are you’re within that 25-foot ​“no cigarette or pot smoking” buffer zone. This 25-foot rule applies not just to pot, but also to tobacco cigarettes.

Dominguez added that the new state law prohibits people from smoking cannabis while operating a motor vehicle or while as a passenger in a car.

So… where can you smoke newly-legal pot in New Haven starting Thursday?

On sidewalks not within 25 feet of doors or windows of retail, restaurants, and public buildings, Elicker said.

You can also smoke in your backyard or in your home — so long as your landlord doesn’t prohibit smoking as a term of your lease.

And you can smoke in a parked car, so long as that parked car is not in a parking lot with 10 or more spaces.

“I don’t anticipate there’s going to be some major change where there’s a lot of people out in the streets smoking marijuana,” Elicker said. ​“We will adjust if there are people who decide to start violating the statute.”

Dominguez said that the city police department is still figuring out how it will enforce the various prohibitions on where people can smoke, including the part of the law that bans smoking pot or tobacco within 25 feet of most buildings.

“If there are concerns or issues with either marijuana or tobacco … we do have the ability [to issue an infraction], but it doesn’t necessarily mean people are going to be walking down the street and we’re going to say, ​‘Oh, $100 ticket.’”

Other Elements Of New Law

Other highlights of the new state law include:

• Adults may possess up to 1.5 ounces of weed ​“on their person” and up to five ounces ​“in their homes or locked in their car, truck or glove box.”

• Retailers are expected to begin selling cannabis products in the state by the end of 2022. They’ll need a state license.

• ​“Individuals who are not licensed by the state may gift cannabis to others but may not sell it. Individuals may not gift cannabis to another individual who has ​“paid” or ​“donated” for another product.”

• New Haven (and other communities with more than 50,000 people) can set rules about where in public people can smoke or vape weed. They will have to set aside a public space where it’s allowed.

• Medical marijuana patients participating in a state program may grow up to three mature and three immature plants in their homes starting Oct. 1; all adults 21 and over may do so beginning July 1, 2023. If you grow up to six plants at home, that’s still illegal for now, but starting July 1 it is no longer a felony, but ​“instead will result in infractions.”

• The state will automatically wipe from criminal records ​“certain cannabis-related convictions” from between Jan. 1, 2000 through Oct. 1, 2015. People will be able to petition to have convictions from other dates erased.

• A newly created Social Equity Council will help the state grant more than half the retail licenses to people from ​“communities that have been most negatively impacted by the so-called war on drugs.”

• Enforcement: Cops will receive training in how to detect impaired driving due to cannabis; retailers will have to comply with ​“strict packaging and labeling standards”; child-safe packaging will be required, and advertising is prohibited within 500 feet of a school and in any media outlets unless it can be proved that ​“more than 90 percent of the audience reached by the advertising is at least 21 years of age or older.”

• Employers may continue enforcing drug-free workplaces, but may not ​“take adverse action against an employee or potential employee for use of cannabis prior to applying for or working” at the job.

Public Response: OK

Sitting on the Green, Mike Kurz, said that he doesn’t completely support the new law. He called legalization ​“a money thing,” a way for politicians to increase tax revenue. Weed ​“isn’t the healthiest thing,” he added. He expressed concern about the impact of increased weed use on people’s driving, especially considering how alcohol and texting already cause many accidents.

Another New Havener, Jane (who also declined to give her last name), suggested the new law could stop people from buying too much weed, since ​“things are more attractive when they’re illegal.” She said that while the law won’t affect her directly, it will affect others, and ​“without the threat of legal action, it will help people” who smoke weed.

On Orange and Edwards Street, Mark Tomasino predicted that legalization will fix the damage of putting lots of people in jail for minor drug possession. ​“People are smoking weed all the time anyways,” he said. ​“The only difference now is that it’s legal, so I don’t think it’ll affect me.”

Walking down Hillhouse Avenue, Carole said she is from the generation when people used weed to get ​“nice and mellow.” She said she hopes that the new law will help ​“mellow people out” all over New Haven. She added that the law will certainly make her life easier.

Joe Chen, a post-doc heading to work on Prospect Street, said that he thinks weed is good for medical use, but recreationally ​“restrictions are better” to prevent overdoses. He added that the law won’t personally affect him.

Eric, meanwhile, said that he ​“grew up around weed,” so people smoking weed more openly won’t be a change for him. He works for the railroad, where he regularly gets drug tested, so he doesn’t plan to purchase weed. ​“But once I retire,” he said, he will consider it.