Whitefish Council Votes to Give Police Authority to Ticket People Consuming Marijuana in Public Places
State law specifies that a person who consumes marijuana in a public place is subjected to a civil fine of no more than $50
By Mike Kordenbrock
After a unanimous vote at the Whitefish City Council’s Jan. 6 meeting, police officers in Whitefish will soon be able to issue civil citations with a fine of up to $50 for people found to be using marijuana in public places.
Calling it something that falls “under the canopy of housekeeping,” City Attorney Angela Jacobs gave a presentation to the council on how to update the city code so that the city’s police department can enforce this type of municipal infraction.
State law specifies that a person who consumes marijuana in a public place is subjected to a civil fine of no more than $50. While that gives local governments the authority to impose civil fines, Jacobs explained that issues have come up with the means through which those fines can be imposed.
As Jacobs told the council, while some city employees and departments can administer and enforce civil penalties for municipal infractions, “the court has actually expressed concern … that police officers aren’t actually authorized by state law to issue municipal infractions.”
“We would like them to be able to do that,” Jacobs said.
Asked by City Councilor Frank Sweeney if she thought the $50 fine could be a deterrent, Jacobs said she did not. She went on to elaborate that while state law limits what the city can do in such a situation, like capping the fine amount, “we would at least like to be able to write a ticket.”
Councilor Ben Davis asked if there were any concerns about having laws on the books “which are either difficult to enforce or ineffective with something like this.”
“I would really say it gives us the authority to intervene and stop the behavior,” Whitefish Police Department Chief Bridger Kelch said in response to Davis’ question. “We’re not going to curtail anybody’s decision to smoke in public or use public space. But at least it gives us the authority to act, intervene, move the behavior on, at least solve it for that point and place.”
As for how many tickets that may amount to, Kelch downplayed the extent to which his police department has attempted to take enforcement action when it comes to consuming marijuana in public places, saying he believed it had only been a handful of times his department had written up citations since marijuana became legal in Montana.
“It’s infrequent,” Kelch said.
Parks, public streets, sidewalks “especially during bar closing,” and the city’s parking garage are areas where the police chief said they’re typically seeing infractions related to consuming marijuana in public places.
Monday night’s unanimous vote by the council is the most recent attempt by the city to further regulate the sale and consumption of marijuana in city limits. In July of 2023, the council voted unanimously to amend its zoning regulations to increase the required distance between dispensaries and schools, churches and other dispensaries in an effort to close a loophole in state law. Existing dispensaries were grandfathered in, and at the time, there were no pending applications expected to be impacted by the new ordinance, but city staff did say it would effectively eliminate any additional dispensaries going into the downtown area with the city’s configuration at the time.