Boulder County Housing Authority expands smokefree policy to include marijuana and e-cigarettes (Times-Call)
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On August 6, 2015 the Boulder County Housing Authority Commissioners in Colorado decided to expand its smoking ban that covers all 611 multi-unit housing rental units, to include banning marijuana and e-cigarette use. The new policy takes effect on August 17, 2015. This amends their 2008 policy that bans smoking tobacco products inside or outside of its rental units.
The new no-smoking policy defines “smoking or smoke” as “either the carrying, smoking, burning, inhaling or exhaling of any kind of lighted pipe, cigar, cigarette, hookah, weed, herbs, incense, or any other lighted smoking equipment, or the use of any electronic smoking or vapor smoking device.”
The 2008 policy allows outdoor smoking in specifically county-designated areas, but most of the county-owned rental properties sites don’t have designated smoking areas. Both the old and new no-smoking policies prohibit smoking on other outdoor areas on the grounds of Housing Authority properties.
Smoke-free areas are to include individual housing units, balconies, patios, entryways, hallways, public restrooms, common areas, laundry rooms, elevators, stairway, playgrounds, and any other parts of Boulder County Housing Authority properties that don’t have signs specifically designating permitted smoking areas.
The smoking ban also applies to tenants’ guests and visitors, and to any county staff members or representatives of community agencies on the properties while they’re there to work with the tenants. Residents who don’t comply with the policy will be in violation of their leases, and repeated violations could eventually result in the Housing Authority initiating the legal process of evicting them.
Read more in the Times-Call story