Duluth, MN Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Duluth's cannabis chapter draws its public-use ban from a broad definition of 'public place' in § 8A-3(i): a public park or trail, a public street or sidewalk, and any enclosed indoor area the general public uses, including restaurants, bars and other food or liquor establishments, hospitals, nursing homes, auditoriums, arenas, gyms, meeting rooms, common areas of rental apartment buildings, and other places of public accommodation. Section 8A-7 then makes it unlawful to use cannabis flower, cannabis products, lower-potency hemp edibles, or hemp-derived consumer products in any of those places or any place of public accommodation, unless the specific premises or event is licensed to permit on-site consumption.

The city's authority to regulate this rests on Minn. 0263, subd. 5, which the ordinance's authority section cites alongside the state's cannabis-business and zoning statutes. Because the ban lives in the same chapter as the retail registration program, the civil-penalty and hearing machinery built for registration violations applies chapterwide: a civil penalty of up to $2,000 can attach to a violation of this Chapter, and anyone assessed that penalty is entitled to written notice and can request a hearing before the Alcohol, Gambling and Tobacco Commission within 30 days.

A registered retailer whose premises or patrons violate the public-use rule also risks having its own registration suspended for posing a threat to public health or safety. Enforcement on the ground falls to the Duluth Police Department, which can cite a person consuming cannabis on the Lakewalk, in a park, or inside an unlicensed bar or restaurant the same way it would any other ordinance violation.