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Miami Beach smoking ban for city's parks, beaches to go into effect

Miami Beach
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The New Year in Miami Beach will start with a new law.

City authorities, tired of seeing discarded cigarette butts on the city's beaches, have passed a smoking ban set to go into effect on Sunday at midnight.

The ban will cover all of Miami Beach's municipal parks and public beaches where residents and tourists gather.

The measure is meat to keep the city clean while also protecting beaches where wildlife, including seabirds and sea turtles, live.

Miami Beach and the greater metro area drew in nearly 30 million visitors in the previous year, the Associated Press reported.

Anyone smoking can be fined $100 and spend up to 60 days in jail — even for first offenders.

Miami Beach City Commissioner Alex Fernandez, said, "This paradise is an important economic engine."

"Cigarette butts are not the butts our 18 million visitors want to see," he said.