Tustin, CA Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Tustin regulates cannabis smoking through Part 2 of Chapter 1, Article 4 of the Tustin City Code (Sections 4120 through 4128), the same ordinance that bans tobacco smoking in enclosed public places and places of employment. Section 4121(b) defines "smoke" or "smoking" broadly to cover any lighted or heated tobacco or plant product, expressly including cannabis, whether burned or vaporized through an electronic smoking device. Section 4122(a) makes it unlawful to smoke in a public place or place of employment except in a designated smoking area, and Section 4122(c) separately bars smoking of any kind in a public park.

Section 4126 lists narrow exceptions for private offices, hotel meeting rooms rented to guests, private social functions, jails, bars, private residences, and restaurants seating fewer than twenty people, but subsection (d) shuts the door on reading any of those carve-outs as a marijuana allowance: nothing in the part authorizes smoking cannabis in a public place. Enforcement runs through the Director of Community Development, who supplies business license applicants with copies of the ordinance, and the Director of Community Services for city-owned facilities; an owner or manager may also simply refuse service to anyone smoking in a posted no-smoking area.

Because the ordinance carves out no cannabis exception, a Tustin police officer or code enforcement officer can cite a person smoking marijuana on a sidewalk, in a shopping center, or in any city park under the same infraction penalties written into Section 4128.