Florida Senate Committee approves bill that bans smoking marijuana in public

With a recreational-marijuana constitutional amendment possibly going on the November ballot, a Senate committee Tuesday approved a bill that would bar smoking and vaping pot in public places.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee unanimously backed the measure (SB 986), filed by Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota. The bill would revise a longstanding law that prevents smoking tobacco in most workplaces. It would prohibit smoking or vaping marijuana in a wide variety of places, such as streets, parks, beaches, government buildings, office buildings, lodging establishments and restaurants.

Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, a Homestead Republican who presented the bill for Gruters, said state law doesn’t currently include a prohibition on pot smoking in such places. The political committee Smart & Safe Florida is trying to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would allow recreational use of marijuana.

The committee still needs to meet a petition-signatures requirement and get approval of the proposed ballot wording from the Florida Supreme Court. Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, has filed a similar bill (HB 389) in the House.

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