No butts on the beach: Miami Beach to outlaw cigarette smoking at parks and beaches

Smoking cigarettes at beaches and parks in Miami Beach will be illegal starting next year.

City commissioners gave final approval Wednesday to a new law outlawing the smoking of cigarettes and other tobacco products at the city’s famed beaches and public parks, with an exception for unfiltered cigars.

The law will take effect Jan. 1, 2023.

“Nothing can be more important not only to protect our health, but to protect our environment,” said Commissioner Alex Fernandez, who sponsored the proposal.

Violating the law could lead to fines — $100 for a first offense and $200 for a second offense within a 12-month period — or even arrests at the discretion of Miami Beach police with a penalty of up to 60 days in jail.

A third offense within 12 months would automatically trigger a criminal violation.

The proposal, which received initial approval in July, passed 5-1 Wednesday with Commissioner Ricky Arriola opposed.

Arriola called it a “meaningless piece of regulation” and an example of government overreach. He added that he doesn’t expect police and park rangers to enforce the law, pointing to a city ban on bringing alcohol to the beach that is rarely enforced.

“This is gonna feel good, it’s gonna get you on the news, but we don’t enforce a lot of the laws that we have,” Arriola said. “Police have much more important, pressing matters.”

Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who voted against the item in July, supported it Wednesday.

Fernandez said he chose to have the ordinance take effect in January to give city officials time to educate the public and install new signage at beach and park entrances.

He has pointed to environmental factors in proposing the ban, noting that cigarette butts contain plastic filters that take a long time to biodegrade. In a memo, City Attorney Rafael Paz said cigarette butts are “by far” the most common item polluting the city’s beaches, parks and waterways.

The new Miami Beach law comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill this summer allowing cities and counties to regulate smoking of tobacco products at beaches and parks.

Local governments in Florida were previously unable to enact smoking bans at beaches and parks. A judge ruled in a 2017 lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union that Sarasota’s ban was unconstitutional and only the state could regulate tobacco use.

The recently enacted state legislation made an exception for unfiltered cigars because they don’t contain plastic filters.

Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat whose district includes Miami Beach, voted against the state legislation, raising concerns that a carve-out for unfiltered cigars could lead to discriminatory outcomes against people who smoke cigars with filters.

“When you can have five guys sitting around smoking fat cigars and one Black kid over here smoking a Black & Mild, and the cop can go and exercise probable cause on that person and has to ignore the five, you have a problem,” Pizzo said during a Senate debate.

Miami Beach has taken a hard-line stance on other smoking-related laws. The city banned the public smoking of marijuana and hemp in 2019, even as the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said it would no longer prosecute most minor marijuana charges because officials could not distinguish between the smell of marijuana and hemp, which is legal in Florida.