Chatham County, GA Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Sec. 11-202, adopted August 7, 2020 under the chapter's repealer and effective-date clause (Sec. 00. If a court finds a defendant lacks the financial means to pay, it may substitute community service commensurate with the fine, and the ordinance flatly states that no person convicted under this section may be sentenced to any term of imprisonment, a deliberately lower penalty than the code's own general penalty clause allows for other unlisted offenses. The companion Sec. 11-203 separately bans possession of a 'drug related object,' defined broadly as any machine, instrument, tool, equipment, contrivance or device an average person would conclude is meant to introduce, enhance, conceal, or test the strength of a controlled substance in the human body, and that offense is not covered by the fine-only cap that Sec.

11-202 sets for marijuana possession alone. Sec. 11-202 covers possession, not use, so it functions as the county's baseline charge whenever an officer finds a small quantity of marijuana on a person in the unincorporated area, whether or not it was being actively consumed. Because the section applies only in the unincorporated county, marijuana enforcement inside Savannah or the county's other cities proceeds under each city's own ordinance instead.