Cannabis Laws in Fort Myers

Last updated 2026-08-08

Why almost nothing here is local

Fla. Stat. 381.986(11) preempts medical marijuana regulation to the state. A city or county in Florida gets exactly one meaningful choice: ban dispensaries entirely, or allow them and regulate them no more restrictively than it regulates pharmacies. There is no middle setting and no cap on how many may open.

Fort Myers allowed them. That isn't a reading of the city code, it is an observation: licensed dispensaries trade inside the city limits today, and you can see the list. The same test answers the question for the unincorporated county, where dispensaries operate in North Fort Myers, and for Fort Myers Beach.

So if you've read that some Florida cities ban dispensaries, that is true and it isn't the situation here.

The three park and beach bans, and what they cover

This is the one area where local government has real authority, and three different governments have used it across the area this site covers. They are separate ordinances passed by separate bodies.

• Lee County restricted smoking and vaping at the beaches and parks it owns, adopted June 17, 2025, with fines for a violation
• The City of Fort Myers restricted smoking and vaping in city-owned parks, with a reported civil fine of $100 for a violation
• The Town of Fort Myers Beach adopted Ordinance 26-07 on May 4, 2026, amending section 18-30 of its code. Read the definitions before assuming it covers you: it bans smoking a lighted tobacco product in town and county parks and beaches, and bans vaping there from a nicotine product or any other substance. Cannabis vapor is caught by the second half; cannabis flower is not caught by the first. State law bars cannabis use in any public place regardless

What those bans actually reach, and what they don't

The authority for all three comes from Fla. Stat. 386.209, which preempts smoking regulation to the state but lets counties and municipalities further restrict smoking on public beaches and parks they own. It carries one odd carve-out: they may not restrict the smoking of unfiltered cigars.

The word doing the work is "smoking", and the Act defines it. Fla. Stat. 386.203(11) says smoking means inhaling, exhaling, burning, carrying or possessing any lighted tobacco product. Cannabis is not a tobacco product, so on the statutory definition a park smoking ban is aimed at tobacco.

Vaping is different and it does reach cannabis. Fla. Stat. 386.203(13) defines vaping as inhaling or exhaling vapor produced by a vapor-generating electronic device from a nicotine product or any other substance, and §386.209 separately allows local ordinances that regulate vapor devices more strictly still.

None of that makes cannabis use in a public park lawful, and it would be a bad idea to read it that way. Florida's medical marijuana law does not authorise use in a public place at all, so public consumption is already prohibited by the state whatever a local park ordinance says about tobacco. The distinction above matters for understanding which rule is being enforced against you, and it changes nothing about whether you may light up at the beach. You may not.

The state rules that actually govern you

These apply identically in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs and everywhere else in Florida.

• Medical only. There is no recreational cannabis in Florida in 2026, and no local government can create one
• Supply runs on two clocks in parallel. A 70-day cycle for non-smokable products under an aggregate ceiling of 24,500 mg of THC, and a separate 35-day cycle for smokable flower capped at 2.5 ounces. That ceiling is not a personal allowance, though. What you may buy is the daily dose your physician recorded for each route, multiplied by 70, so most patients sit well below it. And being inside one limit doesn't mean you're inside the other, which is why a buy is sometimes refused unexpectedly
• Keep it in the dispensary's packaging. Fla. Stat. 381.986(14)(a) requires it, and the same subsection sets possession at the greater of a 70-day supply or four ounces of smokable flower
• Not in a vehicle, aircraft or motorboat. The statute excludes use in any of the three from the definition of medical use, which is worth knowing in a county where a great many people own a boat
• Without a card, possession is a crime. Twenty grams or less is a first-degree misdemeanor. Above that is a felony, and so is any weight of concentrate, because Fla. Stat. 893.13(6)(b) excludes resin and its preparations from the definition of cannabis

Where federal law now sits

A final order effective April 28, 2026, moved marijuana held under a state medical marijuana license, which is the Florida kind, into Schedule III. This is not federal legalisation. Schedule III is still a controlled substance, everything outside that narrow category stays in Schedule I, and the order is under challenge in the D.C. Circuit.

A separate hearing on rescheduling marijuana generally began on June 29, 2026 and we have not established its outcome. Re-check this before relying on it, because it is the fastest-moving item on the page.

Common questions