Chicopee, MA Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Chapter 110 of the Code of the City of Chicopee, titled "Marijuana or Tetrahydrocannabinol, Public Consumption of," was adopted by the City Council on 6-16-2009 by Ord. No. 09-03. Its prohibition sits in § 110-1(A), headed "Application," and it uses three verbs: no person shall smoke, ingest, or otherwise use or consume marijuana or tetrahydrocannabinol, with both terms taken from the definitions in MGL c. 94C, § 1. Eating an edible in public is therefore as covered as smoking.

The list of places is long and specific: any street, sidewalk, public way, footway, passageway, stairs, bridge, park, playground, beach, recreation area, boat landing, public building, schoolhouse, school grounds, cemetery or parking lot, and any area owned by or under the control of the City. The rule also reaches any bus or other passenger conveyance operated by a common carrier, and it closes with a catch-all for any place accessible to the public. A privately owned lot that the public can walk into falls inside that final phrase.

Enforcement is set by § 110-2. The chapter can be enforced through lawful means in law or in equity, and by noncriminal disposition pursuant to MGL c. 40, § 21D, by the Chicopee Police Chief, his or her agents or any police officer. Noncriminal disposition means an officer can issue a ticket rather than start a criminal case. The chapter's cross-references send readers to the Police Department chapter (Ch. 77), to the alcoholic beverages chapter (Ch. 109) and to the noncriminal disposition provisions in Ch. 132, Art. I.

Section 110-3 sets the money penalty: the fine for the first violation of the chapter is $300. It adds that any penalty imposed under the chapter is in addition to any civil penalty imposed under MGL c. 94C, § 32L, so a Chicopee ticket does not cancel the state civil penalty. The chapter prints a figure only for the first violation and does not print a second-offense amount.