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

Yavapai County adopted Ordinance No. 2020-3 to regulate marijuana in the unincorporated county after Arizona voters approved Proposition 207 in November 2020. Section I(C), 'Marijuana Prohibited on Public Property,' bars two things outright: first, the use, sale, cultivation, manufacture, production or distribution of marijuana or marijuana products on public property; second, smoking or consuming marijuana or marijuana products on public property, in a public place, or in open space anywhere in the unincorporated areas of the county. 01, and 'Open Space' as a public park, public sidewalk, public walkway, or public pedestrian thoroughfare.

Because those definitions sweep in parks, sidewalks and walkways alongside county buildings and offices, the practical effect is that there is nowhere in public in the unincorporated county where smoking or consuming marijuana is lawful, regardless of medical marijuana card status. The same ordinance separately prohibits marijuana establishments (retail sale, cultivation, extraction) countywide except for a narrow dual-licensee carve-out tied to an existing nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary, but that establishment-siting rule is a distinct provision from the public-consumption ban in Section I(C). 05, are Class 1 misdemeanors, and each day the prohibited conduct continues counts as a separate offense.