Pinal County, AZ Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

020, "Prohibition of marijuana on public property," does two things at once. First, it bars marijuana possession, use, sale, cultivation, manufacture, production or distribution on any property that is occupied, owned, controlled or operated by the county, meaning county buildings, county parks, county roads and other county-run facilities. Second, and separately, it makes it unlawful for an individual to smoke marijuana in a public place or open space anywhere in the unincorporated areas of Pinal County, not just on county-controlled land, so the smoking ban reaches sidewalks, parking lots and open desert that are otherwise open to the public.

Both clauses open with "except as otherwise provided by state law," reserving room for activity the state's medical and adult-use marijuana statutes separately authorize, such as licensed dispensary sales, but that carve-out does not create a right to consume in public; it is a place-based restriction that stands on its own. The section was adopted as part of the county's marijuana dispensary and establishment regulations by Ordinance No. 022311-PZ-C-008-10, Section 4, and was carried forward and amended by Ordinance No. 2021-PZ-C-001-21, Section 1, when the county updated its marijuana chapter after Arizona voters approved recreational sales.

020 sits inside Title 2 of the Development Services Code, the county zoning ordinance, violations of it are handled under the same enforcement chapter that governs the rest of Title 2, giving code enforcement, the zoning inspector and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office both a criminal and a civil track to pursue a smoking or possession violation on county land or in a public open space.