City Park Marijuana Ban Heads to City Council
The Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously recommended that the City Council amend the city’s parks rules to specifically ban recreational marijuana in the city’s parks and public spaces on Tuesday night.
“This will explain to park users that even though you reserved a pavilion, you cannot use marijuana,” explained Karen Murphy to the commission during the meeting. Ms. Murphy is the city’s director of public services.
The recommended amendment is largely a redundancy of state law, which already prohibits marijuana use in public spaces after the passage of Proposal 1 late last year.
“It doesn’t need to be there but we like to make it as user friendly as possible,” Ms. Murphy told the City Paper. “If someone rents a pavilion, it doesn’t go from public space to private use.”
Ms. Murphy told the commission that the amendment was drafted in consultation with the City Attorney.
Commissioner Nancy Carney asked during the meeting if the amendment anticipated marijuana use in motor vehicles on city property, and if that should be specified. Ms. Murphy replied that she would ask the City Attorney if that would be necessary.
The commission serves as an advisory body to the City Council, which will consider the commission’s recommendation at its next meeting.
Michael Westendorf is the chairman and executive editor of Chemical City Paper. As Executive Editor, he leads the City Paper’s news coverage and editorial team.