Smoking in Miami: Beaches, Bars, Vaping, and Fines

Smoking laws in Miami are strict and layered: Florida bans tobacco smoking and vaping in nearly every enclosed indoor workplace, and both the City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County ban smoking in their public parks and on their public beaches. Fines start at $100 and climb from there. The exceptions are narrow, and a medical marijuana card does not change the picture for public use.

Beaches and Public Parks

This is where most visitors get caught out. Florida used to preempt local smoking rules entirely, but a 2022 amendment lets cities and counties ban smoking in parks and on beaches they control.¹ Miami Beach and Miami-Dade both acted on it.

City of Miami Beach

Miami Beach Ordinance 2022-4509 took effect January 1, 2023 and bans smoking any tobacco product in city parks and on city beaches. Fines escalate on a rolling 12-month basis: $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second, and $500 for a third or later offense. The ordinance also allows up to 60 days of imprisonment per violation under the city code.²

Miami-Dade County

Miami-Dade’s ordinance covers county-owned parks and beaches, including Haulover Park beach, Crandon Park beach, the Rickenbacker Causeway beaches, the atoll pools at Matheson Hammock Park and Homestead Bayfront Park, and the beaches at Larry and Penny Thompson Park and Amelia Earhart Park. Fines reach up to $100 for a first offense, up to $200 for a second, and up to $300 for a third or later offense.³

The Unfiltered Cigar Exception

State preemption law still blocks local governments from restricting unfiltered cigars anywhere, including parks and beaches. Filtered cigars and cigarillos do not qualify.¹ It is a narrow carve-out that catches a lot of people off guard.

Indoor Spaces

Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2003, expanded in 2018, that bans both tobacco smoking and vaping in any enclosed indoor workplace. The statute defines an enclosed indoor workplace broadly: any space where at least one person works that is more than 50 percent covered overhead and more than 50 percent enclosed on the sides by walls, windows, or doors.⁴ That pulls in offices, retail stores, government buildings, restaurants, and partially walled outdoor spaces that cross the threshold.⁵

Vaping gets the same treatment as a lit cigarette under the constitutional provision, with no exception for zero-nicotine juice. If the device produces vapor or aerosol, it falls under the ban.⁶

Where Indoor Smoking Is Still Legal

The constitution carves out a handful of indoor exceptions. Outside of these, assume the answer is no.

Standalone Bars

A standalone bar that earns no more than 10 percent of its gross revenue from food can allow smoking and vaping indoors. It also cannot share an entryway or interior space with another business.⁴ Any venue that functions primarily as a restaurant has to stay smoke-free inside.

Hotel Rooms

Hotels and lodging establishments can designate specific guest rooms where smoking or vaping is allowed, extending to directly associated private areas like the bathroom or kitchenette.⁶ Many Miami hotels have gone fully smoke-free as a matter of policy, so confirm when you book.

Tobacco and Vape Shops

Retail tobacco shops and vape retailers can allow on-premises use of what they sell.⁶

Private Residences

Your home is exempt, unless it is being used commercially for childcare, adult care, or healthcare.⁶ That exemption applies to state law. Your lease or condo rules can override it (see below).

Vaping Outdoors

State preemption applies to “smoking,” not vaping, which Miami-Dade County specifically noted when drafting its parks ordinance.³ Local governments have broader room to restrict e-cigarettes outdoors than they do tobacco. Whether a given park or beach bans vaping depends on the specific local ordinance and the posted signage. If a sign says no vaping, treat it as enforceable.

Medical Marijuana in Public

A medical marijuana card does not let you smoke in public. Florida law prohibits qualified patients from smoking marijuana in any public place, on public transportation, in any vehicle, at the workplace (unless the employer permits it), and in any enclosed indoor workplace covered by the Clean Indoor Air Act.⁷

The exposure here is far more serious than a tobacco ticket. Smoking marijuana in plain view of or in a place open to the public is a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to one year in jail.⁷

Condos, Rentals, and Public Housing

Common areas in condo buildings — hallways, lobbies, recreation rooms, enclosed shared garages — are generally treated as indoor workplaces and must stay smoke-free.⁴ Whether an association can ban smoking inside your own unit is a separate question with little direct statutory guidance, but associations commonly adopt such restrictions through their governing documents.

Private landlords can write smoke-free clauses into leases, and violating one is typically treated as a material breach that can support eviction. Read your lease.

Federally subsidized public housing is stricter. HUD requires all public housing units, indoor common areas, and administrative offices to be smoke-free, with the ban extending to outdoor areas within 25 feet of the building. The rule covers lit tobacco products — cigarettes, cigars, pipes — but does not currently cover e-cigarettes.⁸

Smoking in Vehicles

Florida has no state law banning smoking in a private vehicle, even with children present. A bill proposing it was introduced in 2015 and did not pass. Smoking marijuana in any vehicle, including a parked one, remains illegal for medical patients and can bring misdemeanor charges.⁷ Smoking and vaping are also prohibited in any county-owned or operated vehicle, including Miami-Dade Transit buses.⁹

Minimum Age to Buy

Federal law sets 21 as the minimum age to purchase any tobacco or nicotine product, including cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, hookah, e-cigarettes, and vape juice. There is no exception for active-duty military. Retailers must check photo ID for anyone who looks younger than 30.¹⁰

What You’ll Pay If You’re Caught

Smoking or vaping where the state Clean Indoor Air Act prohibits it is a noncriminal violation handled in county court, with a fine of up to $100 for a first violation and up to $500 for each additional one.¹¹ On Miami Beach and Miami-Dade beaches and parks, the local ordinance fines apply instead, escalating on the 12-month rolling schedules above. And if what you’re smoking is marijuana, you’re looking at a misdemeanor rather than a ticket.

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 386.209 – Regulation of Smoking Preempted to State
2
City of Miami Beach. Ordinance 2022-4509 – Smoking in Parks and on the Beaches Is Prohibited
3
Miami-Dade County. Legislative Matter – Prohibition on Smoking in County Parks and Beaches
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 386.203 – Definitions
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code 386.204 – Prohibition
6
FindLaw. Florida Constitution Art X Section 20
7
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 381.986 – Medical Use of Marijuana
8
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. HUD Smoke-Free Public Housing Rule
9
Miami-Dade County. Prohibition on Smoking and the Use of Electronic Cigarettes and Other Nicotine Dispensing Devices in All County Enclosed Indoor Workplaces
10
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tobacco 21
11
Florida Senate. Florida Code 386.208 – Penalties