Sampson County, NC Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

The Board of Commissioners adopted the Prohibit Smoking ordinance on December 2, 2013, effective February 1, 2014, under authority of G.S. 130A-498 and G.S. 153A-121(a) (Sec. 4-7-01). Sec. 4-7-03(a) prohibits smoking and tobacco use in any building owned, leased, or occupied by the county, on county grounds surrounding those buildings, and in any county-owned, leased, or controlled vehicle. The building-and-grounds ban carries one carve-out: smoking is permitted in areas the County Manager specifically designates, and in an individually assigned county vehicle when only the assigned employee is inside.

Sec. 4-7-03(b) removes that flexibility around the Sampson County Health Department and the Department of Social Services: the ban extends fifty feet out from those buildings, and the code allows no designated smoking area anywhere inside that fifty-foot perimeter. Sec. 4-7-04 requires the county to post signs meeting the Sec. 4-7-05 standard at every building entrance, inside the buildings, in each county vehicle (skipping vehicles used for undercover law enforcement), and around the grounds, in both English and Spanish with the universal no-smoking symbol, and to strip ashtrays and smoking receptacles from county property except in designated areas.

The person in charge of a county building or vehicle, or that person's designee, is directed to tell anyone smoking or using tobacco in a covered area to stop (Sec. 4-7-04(c)). Sec. 4-7-06 tasks the county with an ongoing public-education program, drawing on materials from the local health department, to explain the rule to employees and residents. Sec. 4-7-07 makes the ordinance's provisions severable and states it controls over any conflicting county ordinance.