Peoria, AZ Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Section 17-71, adopted by Ordinance No. 2020-14 in November 2020 and last amended by Ordinance No. 2025-05 in March 2025, splits public marijuana use into two tiers. Subsection (a) bars consuming, smoking, or possessing marijuana or marijuana products on any premises occupied, owned, controlled, or operated by the City of Peoria, to the fullest extent state law allows. Subsection (b) separately bans smoking or consuming marijuana or marijuana products in any open space or public place anywhere in the city, whether or not the property belongs to the City.

Subsection (c) folds in the buffer and enclosed-space smoking restrictions found elsewhere in Chapter 17, making it unlawful to smoke marijuana anywhere ordinary tobacco smoking is already prohibited. The penalty structure in subsections (d) and (e) is what actually separates the two rules in practice: a violation of subsection (a) or (c) is a Class One misdemeanor under Section 1-5, but an ordinary subsection (b) violation, smoking on a public sidewalk or in a private-property open space, is only a petty offense unless that open space or public place happens to be City-owned or City-operated, in which case it jumps to the Class One misdemeanor tier along with (a) and (c).

Arizona's marijuana laws legalize possession but do not create a right to consume in public, so Peoria police can enforce this section anywhere within city limits, from Lake Pleasant's shoreline to downtown Old Town Peoria.