The Miami-Dade Civil Citation Program (June 2015)

Last verified: May 2026

The June 2015 Vote

In June 2015, the Miami-Dade County Commission voted 10–3 to authorize a civil citation program for possession of 20 grams or less of cannabis — the first such program in Florida. The driver behind the initiative was Judge Steven Leifman of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, who had spent two decades arguing that the criminal-justice front-end was the single largest mental-health intake system in the state.

Under the program, an officer encountering a person with ≤20 g of cannabis flower has the option to issue a $100 civil citation (or community service equivalent) instead of making a custodial misdemeanor arrest under §893.13(6)(b).

The City of Miami Beach (2015) and City of Miami (May 2016)

The City of Miami Beach adopted its own parallel ordinance in 2015. In May 2016, the Miami City Commission joined — though the vote was complicated by the absence of Commissioners Francis Suarez and Frank Carollo on the day of the vote. Suarez later said he supported the policy, but his record on cannabis remained mixed through his later City of Miami mayoralty.

The July 2019 State Attorney Declination

In July 2019, then-State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle’s office formally announced it would decline to prosecute most simple-possession cases county-wide. The official reason was the difficulty of distinguishing cannabis from newly legal hemp by smell or appearance — Florida had legalized hemp under SB 1020 just weeks earlier. The practical effect was a near-blanket county-wide policy shift: even when an officer made an arrest, the State Attorney’s Office would file a no-action.

The Discretion Gap — 4,200 Arrests Since 2019

⚠️ Civil citations are discretionary, not mandatory. A 2023 Miami Herald investigation found that despite the policy, more than 4,200 marijuana-possession arrests occurred in Miami-Dade between 2019 and 2023, even as prosecutors dropped roughly 97% of those cases.

What that means in practice: the charge almost always disappears, but the arrest itself is real — with all the immediate consequences of being booked into Turner Guilford Knight (TGK) Correctional Center or Pre-Trial Detention Center: handcuffs, transport, mugshot, fingerprinting, vehicle impound (often), bond posting, and the public arrest record that follows for life. The dropped charge does not undo the arrest record.

Enforcement Variation by Agency

The 4,200 arrests are not evenly distributed. Enforcement varies widely between Miami-Dade police agencies:

• Miami Beach Police Department — among the most aggressive cannabis-odor enforcers in the county. Vehicle searches on the basis of the cannabis-odor probable-cause standard remain routine, particularly during spring break and the cruise-port-arrival window.
• Miami-Dade Police (now MDSO under Sheriff Cordero-Stutz) — more frequently issues citations in unincorporated areas. Practice has varied by district commander and shift.
• City of Miami Police Department — mixed; downtown and Brickell encounters tend to citation, Wynwood and Liberty City encounters historically more arrest-prone (a disparity that local civil-rights groups have flagged repeatedly).
• Hialeah Police Department — conservative posture, reflective of the city’s historically cannabis-skeptical Cuban-American electorate.
• Coral Gables Police — tends to citation; affluent professional patient base less commonly subject to street stops.
• Aventura, Bal Harbour, North Miami Beach Police — vary by individual department.

How the Citation Process Works

1. Officer encounters person in possession of ≤20 g flower.
2. Officer chooses citation over arrest.
3. $100 civil citation issued; community-service alternative may be offered.
4. Citation appears in county civil-court record (not criminal court).
5. No criminal charge filed. No fingerprinting. No mugshot. Vehicle generally not impounded.
6. Failure to pay or complete community service can convert to criminal charge.

What the Program Does Not Cover

• Concentrates of any amount — vapes, dabs, edibles — remain felony charges. Concentrate-felony trap.
• Quantities over 20 g — remain state felony.
• Sale, distribution, or intent-to-distribute charges — not eligible.
• School-zone enhancements (1,000-foot) — not eligible.
• Arrests on federal property — PortMiami, MIA, federal courthouses, national parks. Federal jurisdictions.
• Stops by Florida Highway Patrol or out-of-county agencies — the Miami-Dade ordinance binds Miami-Dade agencies only.

The 2024 Sheriff Transition

In November 2024, Republican Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz was elected the first elected Miami-Dade Sheriff in nearly 60 years — re-establishing the Office of Sheriff in lieu of the appointed Miami-Dade Police Director model. Cordero-Stutz took office in January 2025.

⚠️ How the transition will ultimately affect discretionary cannabis enforcement remains an open question through 2026. The MDPD-to-MDSO transition is still being implemented, and the Sheriff’s posture on the existing 2015 civil-citation policy has not been comprehensively re-stated as of this update. Patients and residents should not assume the policy environment is identical to the pre-2025 MDPD framework.

Companion Site — Statewide Florida Decrim Patchwork

Miami-Dade was first, but other Florida counties and cities have since adopted similar ordinances (Tampa, Orlando, Alachua County, Volusia County, Broward County, West Palm Beach, Key West). For the statewide Florida cannabis-citation patchwork, see CannabisFL.org.

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