On any given night, Ocean Drive still looks like a postcard—Art Deco lights, packed patios, and the steady hum of visitors moving between Lummus Park and the restaurant row. But in recent years, Miami Beach has paired that glamour with a message that’s far less romantic: the rules are real, and enforcement—especially in South Beach’s most visible corridors—can be swift.

At the foundation is a simple reality: Florida has not legalized adult-use cannabis statewide. Possession of 20 grams or less remains a first-degree misdemeanor under Florida law, with penalties tied to misdemeanor sentencing statutes. In a neighborhood like Ocean Drive—high foot traffic, heavy patrol presence, and constant quality-of-life complaints—those statewide rules can feel even stricter in practice.

And the numbers suggest Miami Beach stands out. Local reporting has shown that Miami Beach police have historically made a notable volume of misdemeanor marijuana arrests compared with other areas of Miami-Dade County, drawing attention to how aggressively the city enforces low-level cannabis offenses—particularly in tourist-heavy zones.

So, has that pushed tourists away?

The most honest answer is not broadly—but it may be reshaping who visits, when they visit, and what kind of trip they expect. Across Greater Miami and Miami Beach, tourism has remained strong, with recent years delivering record visitor totals. That is not the profile of a destination in retreat.

What has changed is the city’s posture around peak party periods, when public consumption—cannabis included—tends to be more visible. After multiple spring-break seasons marked by violence and large crowds, Miami Beach rolled out highly publicized enforcement strategies. These included curfews, beach access restrictions, traffic controls, and an expanded police presence, paired with clear messaging warning visitors to expect strict rules and real consequences for public misbehavior, including drug possession.

City leaders have been unusually direct in how they frame these efforts, at times openly discouraging certain types of party-driven tourism. Officials have also pointed to stronger hotel performance, improved public safety metrics, and fewer large-scale disturbances as evidence that the strategy is achieving its intended goals.

That helps explain the split-screen reality on Ocean Drive today:

• For many mainstream tourists—families, international travelers, conference attendees, and higher-spend dining and shopping visitors—visible enforcement can signal safety, order, and predictability rather than inconvenience.
• For cannabis-tolerant travelers arriving from states where marijuana is legal, or for visitors expecting looser “vacation rules,” the risk calculus changes quickly. A casual joint on a walk back to a hotel can turn into a citation, an arrest, or a vacation-ending legal issue.

In the end, strict cannabis enforcement is unlikely to be the single factor driving tourists away from Ocean Drive. The area remains one of the most visited and recognizable stretches of beachfront nightlife in the country. But the tougher posture around cannabis and public behavior is clearly filtering the type of visitor Miami Beach attracts, shifting the destination toward a more controlled, compliance-focused version of its South Beach identity.