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

Medford's smoking ordinance, Chapter 58, Article II, was written to police tobacco use, but its Section 58-42 definition of 'smoking or smoke' is not limited to tobacco: it covers lighting or possessing a lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe or other tobacco 'or non-tobacco product designed to be combusted or inhaled,' and expressly lists inhaling, exhaling, chewing, burning or carrying 'any lighted cigar, cigarette, weed or other plant in any manner or in any form.' Because that definition reaches non-tobacco combustible and inhaled products, the enforcement provisions of Section 58-43 that use the term 'smoking' apply the same way to smoking marijuana as to smoking cigarettes.

Section 58-43(b)(2) bans smoking in workplaces, work spaces, classrooms, conference and meeting rooms, offices, elevators, hallways, medical facilities, cafeterias, employee lounges, staircases, restrooms, restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, food courts, supermarkets, bars, taverns, and any place selling food or drink for on-premises consumption, as well as trains, theaters, arenas and other public transportation conveyances. The article is enforced by the police department, the board of health and the tobacco control department under Section 58-46, and Section 58-43(g) sets fines of $100.00 for a first violation, $200.00 for a second violation within two years, and $300.00 for a third or later violation within two years of the second, with each calendar day of a continuing violation a separate offense.

A person cited for smoking marijuana in one of the enumerated public places or workplaces can appeal to the board of health under Section 58-47, arguing the enforcement works a manifest injustice, with further appeal to a court of competent jurisdiction. Separately, Section 58-48 barred any special permit for a medical marijuana treatment center in the city before March 3, 2014, but that provision addresses siting, not public consumption.