META  — Meta aldermen, at their meeting last week, approved an ordinance to outlaw smoking marijuana in public after a recommendation by City Attorney Nathan Nickolaus following the passage of Amendment 3 on Nov. 8.

First discussed in November 2022, Nickolaus told aldermen the issue would need to be addressed as soon as possible.

“You have some criminal things that need to be changed,” said Nickolaus on Nov. 9, explaining that Amendment 3 includes an opt-out provision for municipalities. “Not a huge amount of stuff, but there are some basic things that I think you probably need to add to your code. One is no smoking in public. You don’t want people hanging out at the park, smoking marijuana.”

Residents should consider one part of the ordinance: “Persons may consume marijuana in their private residence, or in the residence of another with permission, but may not dispense or smoke marijuana in such a manner that the marijuana smoke or odor exits the residence. If marijuana smoke or odor is capable of being detected by a person of ordinary senses (including but not limited to any police officer) beyond the property line of a single-family home or outside of the owned or leased premises of a duplex or multifamily unit, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that this section has been violated. In a multifamily or similar dwelling, medical marijuana may not be dispensed or consumed in any common area.”

“If it goes into somebody else’s property, mainly we would treat it as a nuisance, but you could also just cite them, so it’s a ‘neighbor’s get along’ kind of thing, but it has to go not just out of their house, but out over the property line.”

Many, if not all, rental property owners prohibit smoking tobacco indoors, so the ordinance adds marijuana to that prohibition.

Nickolaus, whose firm handles municipalities across the state, said he has found that “the difference between tobacco and marijuana is if you’re sitting in a restaurant, and somebody’s smoking marijuana, that has a fairly immediate effect. And you could end up getting a DUI driving home.

“Smoking is a subset of consumption,” Nickolaus added, so if you’re just eating gummies in your living room, that’s not gonna bother anybody. But if you’re smoking in your living room, and you live in an apartment complex, it could be a problem for people.”

What will likely be a problem for the city is enforcement.

“In Meta, we have no police,” said Nickolaus. “Basically, I think there’s two ways to enforce it. At the park and other public places, we could just put up some signs and hope we get voluntary compliance because you can’t police it.”

Aldermen agreed that placing ‘No Smoking’ signs at the park would be helpful but enforcing the ordinance if someone is smoking marijuana at home will require a different approach.

“If you’re talking about the residential use, and it’s bothering somebody, we can enforce it the way that we do the other nuisances,” said Nickolaus, explaining he would write a letter. “If it’s an ongoing problem, we can think of other options.”

What matters most, Nickolaus added, is that the ordinance approved by aldermen is on the books.

“It’s important because if you didn’t, you couldn’t tell that person at the park they can’t smoke marijuana,” Nickolaus said.

Remaining business from the meeting will be presented next week.