Washington County, MN Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Chapter III, Section 3 of Parks Ordinance #218 extends the same permit-based framework the county uses for alcohol to cannabis. Subsection (a) bars anyone from vaporizing, smoking, serving, possessing, displaying, or consuming cannabis flower, cannabis products, lower-potency hemp edible, artificially derived cannabinoids, or hemp-derived consumer products within a park or conservation area, unless otherwise authorized by use permit, so as with alcohol, the default is prohibition and a specific Parks Division permit is the only way around it. Subsection (b) goes further than the alcohol rule by also banning the supply side outright: using, growing, manufacturing, selling, giving away, bartering, exchanging, distributing, or otherwise transferring any of those same cannabis and hemp products is unlawful, with an exception only for lawful medication prescribed by a licensed provider, and this supply-side ban applies regardless of any use permit.

Subsection (c) separately makes it unlawful to be under the influence of cannabis or hemp products to the point of intoxication, or to a degree that costs a person their motor skills, consciousness, or otherwise risks injury to themselves or other park visitors. Together the three subsections track Minnesota's legalization of adult-use cannabis and hemp-derived products by carrying county park restrictions over from the existing alcohol model in the ordinance, rather than leaving parks unregulated once state law changed.