February 3, 2026

Alabama House Passes Bill to Report Parents Smoking Weed While Kids are Present

By Isabella Gomez
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News

February 3, 2026

MONTGOMERY, Ala. Among thew business and new laws debated recently in Montgomery was a law that would make it a crime for adults to smoke marijuana or vape in a vehicle when children are also present.

Debates are common at Alabama’s state house, but what is less common is seeing members of one party debate each other on a bill. It would also require mandatory reporting of parents whose kids smell of marijuana.

House Bill 72 has a Democratic sponsor, Rep. Patrick Sellers (D-Pleasant Grove). However, convincing the House to pass his bill involved his fellow democratic lawmakers, rather than the Republicans across the aisle.

“Don’t smoke marijuana around your children. Don’t have your children around anyone smoking marijuana,” said Rep. Sellers. “Second-hand smoke — second-hand marijuana smoke is very harmful.”

The bill, if passed, would ban anyone, regardless of age, from smoking or vaping marijuana in a vehicle when a child, or as the bill defines it, anyone under 19 years old, is in the vehicle.

According to the bill, violating the rule would result in a Class A misdemeanor with a possible one year behind bars. A violator would also have to attend an education course from the Alabama Department of Public Health on “the negative impacts of marijuana and other drug use around children and the dangers of exposing children to secondhand marijuana smoke.”

“You know the difference if you’re carrying your child to school and you’re smoking marijuana in an enclosed environment and that child goes into the school, their whole body, their whole clothes, all of it smells just like — smells like marijuana,” he said.

However, Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) is against the bill.

“The laws that are on the books, we think that they are strong enough now,” she said after the bill passed the House. “I’m not sure why the sponsor carried this bill to this extent.”

Rep. Givan said she is for the rule of law but has an issue with what she calls the bill’s unintended consequences.

The bill requires mandatory reporters, which include teachers, to report parents to the Department of Human Resources when their child smells like marijuana.

“There are so many individuals that are of color that are typically — there are issues with racial profiling, there are unintended consequences, especially when you get to a point where you are putting something in a bill,” she said.

Out of the Democratic caucus, five members voted “yes,” 15 abstained, seven, including sponsor Rep. Sellers, did not vote on the bill and the only two no votes were democrats. All republicans voted “yes,” except for two “abstentions.”

This bill has one more hurdle before going to Gov. Ivey’s desk and that’s the green light from the Senate.
If the law is passed, the Governor would sign it next, and it would take effect on October 1, 2026.