Commerce City, CO Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Section 12-6008 of the Commerce City Revised Municipal Code, rewritten in its entirety by Ord. No. 1989 on January 6, 2014, layers three separate marijuana offenses. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful for anyone under 21 to possess, consume, or use two ounces or less of marijuana. Subsection (b) makes it unlawful for anyone 21 or older to possess, consume, or use more than one ounce and less than two ounces. Subsection (c), the public-use provision, is the broadest of the three: it is unlawful for any person of any age to openly and publicly display, consume, or use two ounces or less of marijuana, meaning legal possession under state and city law does not excuse smoking or displaying marijuana where the public can see it, on a sidewalk, in a park, at public events, or on a business's exterior premises.

The section also bans any amount of synthetic cannabinoids or salvia divinorum outright under subsection (d), and separately restricts drug paraphernalia possession under subsection (e), barring anyone under 21 from having any paraphernalia and barring adults from having paraphernalia unrelated to marijuana use. A related section, 12-6012, imposes its own detailed rules for home cultivation, including a 32-square-foot growing-area cap and an enclosed, locked-space requirement, but that provision addresses growing marijuana rather than public consumption. Commerce City Police enforce section 12-6008 on patrol and at complaints, most commonly at parks, sidewalks, and large public events where marijuana use is visible to bystanders regardless of the user's age or the amount involved.