Long Island city bans smoking pot in public as stink-weary residents say there is a time and a place

Smoke if you got ’em — just not here.One Long Island town passed a ban on smoking pot in public — a move applauded by residents fed-up with the ever-present smell of marijuana who said “there’s a time and place” for the recreational drug.The city of Glen Cove is apparently the first municipality in the state to enact a ban since New York made weed legal, with the City Council approving the prohibition at a contentious meeting Tuesday night.“You can smoke marijuana in your house, in your yard, in your friend’s yard — we are banning it from public places like our beaches, our stadium, our parks, places we bring our children,” city Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said, according to video of the meeting.Under the new law, anybody caught smoking pot in public spaces within city limits outside of their homes, including while walking down sidewalks, will be slapped with fines of up to $100 for their first offense and $250 for any time after.City officials, who previously voted to opt-out of allowing cannabis sales in 2021 and later enacted a zoning law in 2023 that significantly restricted where new smoke shops could open within Glen Cove, said the passage comes in response to complaints about what one local called “the awful stench” lingering throughout town.“There is a time and a place for adult substances — and our parks, streets, playgrounds and public spaces are not the place for marijuana use,” resident Bruce Kennedy told the board, likening the ban to restrictions on alcohol consumption.But some residents called the law illegal and said it was a desperate “money grab” that targets law-abiding young people who don’t own homes and aren’t allowed to smoke in their apartments, which they said would force them to either break the law or their lease in order to toke up.The law makes no changes to where smoking tobacco is permitted — which legal cannabis experts said might violate state regulations that lumps marijuana in with other legal f...