De Pere, WI Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Section 8-1 of the De Pere Code of Ordinances is the city's master adoption ordinance for minor state offenses. Subsection (a) declares that a list of state statutes, together with all amendments enacted from time to time, are adopted and incorporated by reference as if fully set forth in this section, and that the penalty for violating any of them is a forfeiture set by resolution of the common council rather than the criminal penalty written into the state statute itself. The list locally designates Wis. Stats. § 961.41, possession of marijuana, as city ordinance 8.961.41, alongside the state's paraphernalia statutes and other offenses like battery and disorderly conduct.

Because the offense is adopted as a municipal ordinance rather than left as a pure state charge, a De Pere police officer who catches someone possessing marijuana, including in a public place such as a park or downtown sidewalk, has the option of writing it up as a city forfeiture citation returnable in municipal court rather than referring it to the Brown County district attorney for a state charge. Section 1-11(d) of the general penalty chapter confirms this intent, stating that incorporating a state statute by reference is not intended to adopt any of the penalties provided for in the state statutes, and that the Code's penalty is instead a forfeiture, with imprisonment possible only for failing to pay it.

A closely related section, 8-10, separately adopts Wis. Stats. § 961.41(3g)(em) by reference to reach possession of synthetic cannabinoids and salvia under the same municipal forfeiture framework.