For most adults 21+ in Brooklyn, the only legal place to smoke cannabis is home. That makes the building's rules more important than any other part of the law, and they are the part people know least. The short version: possession is a state matter, but smoking at home is a lease matter, and every building with three or more units is required to say in writing where it stands.

The rule, plainly

New York lets adults 21+ smoke or vape cannabis in most places where smoking tobacco is allowed. Inside your own home, that is the default. But the state's Office of Cannabis Management is direct about the exception: landlords are still allowed to ban smoking, tobacco and cannabis alike, in apartment buildings.

The state's Cannabis Law adds a protection running the other way. Under Section 127, a landlord may not refuse to rent to you, or otherwise penalize you, solely for conduct the law allows. There are two exceptions. One applies where allowing it would cost the landlord a monetary or licensing benefit under federal law. The other: a property with a smoke-free policy does not have to permit cannabis smoking on the premises.

What it means for your apartment

Put together, the rules sort most Brooklyn situations quickly:

• Your building allows smoking in units. Smoking cannabis in your apartment is legal, on the same terms as tobacco.
• Your building is smoke-free. The ban covers cannabis smoke and vapor. Breaking it is a lease problem, the kind that ends up in a landlord's letter.
• Edibles and tinctures. A smoking ban is a ban on smoking and vaping. It does not reach a product you eat. For renters in smoke-free buildings this is the format the rules leave open, and the usual framing applies: start low, go slow, and give the first serving its full onset window.
• Medical patients. Tenants registered in the state's Medical Cannabis Program have a stronger position: the state says landlords can prohibit their medical use at home, including smoking or vaping, only where allowing it would cost the landlord federal benefits.

Every building has to tell you

New York City's Local Law 147, in effect since August 2018, requires every residential building with three or more units, rentals, condos and co-ops alike, to adopt a written smoking policy. The policy has to say where smoking is permitted and prohibited, including outdoor common areas like rooftops, balconies, patios and courtyards. It has to be given to tenants and owners annually, built into leases and purchase agreements, and posted in a public area of the building. Owners who skip it face a $100 penalty.

Two moves follow:

• Find the policy before you light anything. It should be in your lease paperwork or on the lobby wall. If you never received one, ask the landlord. If that goes nowhere, 311 takes the complaint.
• Read the outdoor section. Brooklyn's brownstone backyards and shared rooftops are where most assumptions go wrong. A shared roof is a common area, and the policy decides it.

The common areas are never an option

The city's Smoke-Free Air Act prohibits smoking and e-cigarette use in the common areas of any residential building with three or more units: hallways, stairwells, lobbies and laundry rooms. The city's health department states plainly that smoking here includes cannabis. That holds even in a building whose policy allows smoking inside the units. Common-area violations go to 311, and the building owner is responsible for them.

Public housing is its own category

NYCHA went smoke-free on July 30, 2018, under a federal HUD mandate. The policy prohibits smoking inside apartments, in all indoor common areas and outdoors within 25 feet of any NYCHA building. Separately, cannabis remains illegal under federal law, and its use is prohibited on HUD-funded properties regardless of New York's legalization. For residents of public or federally subsidized housing, the state's protections don't change the federal rule.

When the smoke is coming from next door

This is the conversation most Brooklyn buildings eventually have, and the city's guidance is unusually specific about it:

• Smoke from a common area is a Smoke-Free Air Act violation. Report it to 311 with the building address and the landlord's contact details.
• Smoke from inside a neighbor's apartment is not something the health department can act on. The law does not stop people from smoking in their own units.
• If the building is smoke-free, the neighbor may be violating the lease. The city suggests keeping a written log of when and where the smoke comes in, writing to the owner or manager with specifics, suggesting fixes like sealing gaps or checking ventilation, and keeping copies of everything.
• Talk first, if you can. The city points neighbors who need help with that conversation to the New York Peace Institute's free mediation.

The building is not the only rule

None of this extends past the front door. New York state law prohibits cannabis consumption on state-owned land and in public spaces, and the city's smoke-free rules cover its parks and beaches, so the stoop, the sidewalk and the park across the street are all out. A car is out too, parked or not.