Reefer Madness! Miami Beach Wants Pot-Smoking Spring Breakers Arrested

Miami Beach commissioners are gearing up to fight the inevitable spring break chaos by cracking down on the unruly crime of... [checks notes] possessing small amounts of weed.

In the city's latest attempt to tame spring break, Miami Beach commissioners voted on January 31 to roll back its decriminalization of weed — removing an optional civil penalty for people caught with 20 grams or less of marijuana. Approval of the policy change, which is part of the city's no-tolerance "We're Breaking Up With Spring Break" campaign, requires a second reading and final approval on February 21.

"We're shutting the door on Spring Break, re-criminalizing marijuana and imposing our strictest consequences for reckless behavior," said Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez, who sponsored the change. "The anything-goes party atmosphere is over."

The policy change comes nearly eight years after Miami Beach commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance that allows police to issue a $100 fine to people caught with weed rather than whisking them off to jail. The 2015 law mirrored one passed by Miami-Dade County that same year. (As previously reported by New Times, police departments countywide nonetheless sent more than 5,000 people to jail for misdemeanor marijuana possession in the first three years after the civil citation option was approved.)

While medical marijuana was legalized in Florida via a 2016 ballot initiative, recreational marijuana remains illegal. Possession of less than 20 grams of recreational marijuana is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.

Spring break season in South Beach — which typically peaks in mid-March and extends through April — makes national headlines on an annual basis for shootings, police violence, and general chaos. Over the years, rough arrests and excessive use of force by Miami Beach police, such as the time officers fired pepper-spray pellets near spring breakers and tackled a man who was walking away from the scene of a brawl, have continuously drawn criticism of civil rights groups.

In a recent press release describing the city's spring break crackdown, Miami Beach said the optional $100 civil penalty hasn't been an "adequate deterrent" to discourage people from smoking or possessing cannabis in public, and that local police have reported issuing only a few civil citations in lieu of arrests since the law went into effect.

Currently, smoking weed in public in Miami Beach carries a criminal penalty of up to 60 days in jail and/or a $500 fine. Though Miami-Dade County said it stopped prosecuting misdemeanor marijuana cases in 2019, Miami Beach runs its own municipal prosecution program that allows it to pursue charges over low-level pot possession.

The city's statement notes the tighter stance on weed is just one part of its plan to target spring breakers.

"Other elements of the plan address traffic impacts, alcohol sales, unlawful gatherings, excessive noise and illegal short-term rentals," the statement reads.

Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner and commissioners David Suarez and Laura Dominguez joined Fernandez in supporting the marijuana re-criminalization measure. Commissioners Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, and Joseph Magazine voted against it.

As reported by Axios, Miami Beach also announced that sidewalk cafes on Ocean Drive would shut down during the second and third weekends of March. The city plans to jack up parking rates in the South Beach entertainment district to a $100 flat rate at city garages and lots.

However, rates will be $30 during all other weekends in March.