California Beach & Park Smoking Ban Heads to Governor’s Desk

A pair of bills seeking to ban smoking at California’s parks and beaches are heading to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.

A.B. 725 passed its third reading in the California Senate 26-11 with three abstaining on Monday, while S.B. 386 cleared its final vote in the California Assembly 56-22 with one abstaining.

The bills are almost identical, both would ban smoking at parks and beaches within the states, but there are a couple differences that make A.B. 725 more preferable for smokers than S.B. 386.

First and foremost are the potential fines for violation: $50 for A.B. 725 versus $100 for S.B. 386. Secondly, while both bills would allow for exemptions to be made by the state’s park director, S.B. 386 would not allow for any exemptions on beaches.

Both bills would also make it illegal for anyone to dump cigar or cigarettes at state beaches or parks.

According to The Sacramento Bee, this is at least the third time in the last decade a park and beach smoking ban bill has been sent to the governor’s desk, but each have been rejected with the most recent veto coming last year from the Democratic governor.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.