Thor Benson / Cannabis News Box Contributor

California Gov. Jerry Brown has an unsurprisingly reasonable take on people smoking on the state’s beaches and in its parks. He thinks you should be allowed to do it, which is why he recently vetoed two bills that would have banned doing so statewide.

“If people can’t smoke even on a deserted beach, where can they? There must be some limit to the coercive power of government,” Brown said.

The people pushing the bills were trying to curb smoking tobacco at parks and on beaches, but banning those things would obviously mean cannabis smokers wouldn’t be allowed to light up either. Brown has successfully made it easier to find a place to smoke a jay.

However, many local government have banned smoking from parks and beaches.

“Cities and counties can still have their own bans for public beaches, which is fairly common,” Josh Drayton, director of communications at the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA), told Cannabis News Box. “What I do think is good is we’re starting to have a conversation about the limited spaces where folks are going to be able to consume cannabis.”

Drayton said it’s important that California create ample spaces for the consumption of cannabis, like social use lounges, so people actually have places to go consume in their towns once legalization takes effect. He pointed out some towns and cities don’t allow people to smoke in their own apartments, because people would smoke tobacco inside and bother their neighbors, so many can’t even smoke cannabis at home.

“If we do have the right to consume cannabis, where can we do that without such extreme restrictions?” Drayton asked. He said there will likely be a cultural shift that makes social cannabis use in California more normal and accepted. In the mean time, lawmakers are still figuring out the details.