NEW YORK (NewsNation) — Two New York state lawmakers are proposing a bill that would prohibit the public use of cannabis unless approved by the local government.
When the New York State Legislature legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2021, there was a sudden increase in people walking around the city with a joint in their hand.
The overwhelming smell of weed in the air led to numerous phone calls to city offices, with people urging city officials to take action.
However, the law currently allows weed smokers to smoke in public wherever tobacco smoke is permitted.
The two lawmakers from Brooklyn and Jamestown decided to propose the bill after receiving countless complaints about the smell of weed smoke in the air.
Last summer, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law prohibiting cigarette and marijuana smoking at state parks, almost all state-owned beaches, boardwalks, marinas, playgrounds, recreational centers, and public campgrounds.
The proposed bill, which aims to ban public marijuana use, is unlikely to pass as the two lawmakers sponsoring it are Republicans in a predominantly Democrat state legislature.
Meanwhile, there has been a noticeable increase in people smoking weed publicly, and some argue that there should be measures in place to protect against secondhand marijuana smoke.
“I haven’t smoked pot outside in 30 or 40 years,” one man told NewsNation. “I live close enough by. I don’t want to subject people, little kids. But, I’m a huge pot smoker.”
Another pedestrian suggested treating marijuana smoke like cigarette smoke, stating that people can simply walk away if it bothers them, just as they would with cigarette smoke.
“Given the fact that we’re cracking down on one kind of smoke and not the other and having to enforce, what that enforcement looks like to me sounds like a slippery slope,” a third pedestrian said.
While marijuana remains illegal at the federal level in the U.S., nearly half of the states have legalized recreational marijuana use, and even more have legalized it for medicinal purposes.
In 19 states, individuals can still be imprisoned for the possession of small amounts of marijuana, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
The most common rule regarding smoking weed in public is that it is banned wherever cigarette smoking is prohibited.
Devan Markham contributed to this report.