Is It Illegal to Smoke Weed in Your Apartment in California?

Under California state law, it is not illegal to smoke weed in your apartment in California if you are 21 or older — but that is only half the picture. Your lease, your city’s ordinances, and federal housing rules can each independently make it prohibited, fineable, or grounds for eviction. For most renters, the practical answer is no: state law won’t stop you, but your landlord almost certainly can.

What State Law Actually Allows

Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, legalized personal cannabis possession and consumption for adults 21 and older starting in November 2016. You can possess up to 28.5 grams of cannabis flower and 8 grams of concentrate, and you can smoke or ingest cannabis on private property.¹ California’s Department of Cannabis Control states the rule plainly: “You can use cannabis on private property, but not in public places.”²

The same guidance adds the qualifier that matters for renters: “Property owners can ban the use of cannabis on privately-owned property. If you rent, read your rental agreement to see if there are any restrictions.”² Prop 64 gives you a right to consume, then hands your landlord the power to take it back.

Health and Safety Code 11362.3 layers on location restrictions. You cannot smoke cannabis anywhere tobacco smoking is already prohibited, within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare while children are present, or in any public place.³ If tobacco smoking is banned in your building or city, cannabis smoking is automatically prohibited too.

Your Lease Is Usually the Deciding Factor

Most California landlords ban smoking through lease terms, and they have clear authority to do so. Civil Code 1947.5 lets landlords prohibit tobacco smoking anywhere on the property, including inside individual units, and requires leases entered into after January 1, 2012 to specify which areas are smoke-free.⁴ Prop 64 separately confirms that property owners can ban cannabis use on their property.²

Many leases use blanket “no smoking” language that covers all substances. Others include a general nuisance clause prohibiting activities that create strong odors or disturb neighbors, and cannabis smoke fits that description. If your current lease says nothing about smoking, that can change. Landlords can add a smoking prohibition at renewal or through a written addendum with proper notice under the change-of-terms procedures in Civil Code 1947.5.⁴

If your lease bans smoking, that ban almost certainly extends to cannabis. If your lease is silent, expect that to change at the next renewal.

Local Ordinances Can Restrict You Further

California cities and counties can pass their own rules on top of state law, and many have. These ordinances typically cover tobacco and cannabis together and apply to individual units, not just common areas.

San Francisco’s Health Code Article 19M requires landlords of multi-unit buildings to designate each residential unit as either “smoke free” or “smoking optional” and to disclose that designation to prospective tenants before they sign a lease.⁵ If your unit is designated smoke-free, smoking inside violates a city health code, not just your lease. Los Angeles has broadened its smoking restrictions in multi-unit housing through Ordinance 187525.⁶ Beverly Hills, Calabasas, and Dublin have declared secondhand smoke a public nuisance and enacted their own multi-unit housing bans.

Check your city’s municipal code before assuming your apartment is fair game.

Vaping Counts as Smoking

Switching to a vape pen does not sidestep the rules. Health and Safety Code 11362.3 defines “smoke” to include “the use of an electronic smoking device that creates an aerosol or vapor, in any manner or in any form.”³ Any restriction that applies to a joint applies equally to a cannabis vape cartridge. Vaping produces less visible smoke and less obvious odor, so tenants often assume it falls into a gray area. Legally it does not.

Subsidized Housing Is Different

Cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act.⁷ That matters enormously if you live in public housing, use a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), or rent in any building that receives federal assistance.

HUD’s 2014 memorandum on marijuana in multifamily assisted properties directs owners of federally assisted housing to deny admission to anyone determined to be using marijuana, including medical marijuana. For current tenants, owners must have policies allowing termination of tenancy when a household member uses marijuana or when that use interferes with other residents’ peaceful enjoyment of the property.⁸ HUD reaffirmed this position in 2022, stating it lacks the discretion to change these requirements absent a change in federal law.⁹

A Medical Card Does Not Change This

California tenants with a medical marijuana recommendation sometimes ask whether the Fair Housing Act entitles them to a reasonable accommodation to use cannabis at home despite a no-smoking policy. It does not. The Fair Housing Act’s reasonable accommodation requirement applies to people with disabilities, but its protections explicitly do not cover anyone “currently engaging in the current illegal use of controlled substances.”¹⁰

Because marijuana remains federally illegal, using it counts as illegal use of a controlled substance for federal purposes, even with a valid California medical recommendation. HUD has stated directly that it prohibits admission of marijuana users to assisted housing, including medical users.⁹ Private landlords are similarly under no obligation to accommodate medical cannabis use.

What Happens If You Get Caught

The consequences can stack, coming from your landlord, your neighbors, and your city at the same time.

Eviction

If your lease prohibits smoking, lighting up is a lease violation. Your landlord can serve a three-day notice requiring you to stop the violation or vacate. Under Code of Civil Procedure 1161, the three days exclude weekends and judicial holidays, and during that window you can cure the violation by stopping the behavior.¹¹ If you don’t cure it, the landlord can file an unlawful detainer lawsuit. An eviction on your record makes future apartment applications significantly harder.

Security Deposit Deductions

Smoke residue and odor are not normal wear and tear. If cannabis smoke stains walls, permeates carpets, or leaves a persistent smell, your landlord can deduct remediation costs from your security deposit. Civil Code 1950.5 permits deductions for “repair of damages to the premises, exclusive of ordinary wear and tear, caused by the tenant” and for cleaning necessary to return the unit to its original condition.¹² Professional smoke odor removal can run from several hundred to several thousand dollars, often more than a typical deposit.

Neighbor Nuisance Claims

Your neighbors have their own legal avenue. Civil Code 3479 defines a nuisance as anything “injurious to health” or “offensive to the senses” that interferes with “the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.”¹³ Cannabis smoke drifting into a neighboring unit fits that definition. Repeated complaints can trigger landlord action, and in some cases neighbors can pursue civil claims for damages.

Local Fines

In cities with smoke-free housing ordinances, violations can carry administrative fines. Amounts vary, but typical ranges run from $100 for a first offense up to $500 for repeat violations. These fines come from the city separately from anything your landlord does, so you can end up paying both.

Edibles Are the Path of Least Resistance

Nearly every restriction above targets smoking, meaning combustion or vaporization. Edibles, tinctures, capsules, and topicals produce no smoke, vapor, or secondhand exposure. Inside a private residence, ingesting edibles does not trigger the smoke-specific bans in Health and Safety Code 11362.3.³ Local smoke-free housing ordinances likewise target smoke and vapor, not edible consumption.

Your lease still controls. If it bans “cannabis use” rather than just “smoking,” edibles could technically violate it too. And in federally assisted housing, any form of cannabis use is prohibited regardless of delivery method.⁸ For tenants in private, non-subsidized housing with a standard no-smoking clause, edibles avoid the smoke, the odor complaints, and the lease violation all at once.

1
Judicial Branch of California. Proposition 64 – The Adult Use of Marijuana Act
2
Department of Cannabis Control. What’s Legal
3
CA.gov. Health and Safety Code 11362.3
4
California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 1947.5
5
San Francisco Health Code. SEC 19M.2 – Designation of Units as Smoke Free or Smoking Optional, Disclosure to Tenants and Prospective Tenants
6
City of Los Angeles City Clerk. Ordinance 187525
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 21 USC 812 – Schedules of Controlled Substances
8
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Use of Marijuana in Multifamily Assisted Properties
9
HUD Exchange. Can a PHA Make a Reasonable Accommodation for Medical Marijuana
10
U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Joint Statement on Reasonable Accommodations Under the Fair Housing Act
11
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 1161
12
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1950.5
13
California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 3479