Baltimore City Council seeks to restrict placement of city smoke shops
Baltimore City leaders introduced a three-part legislative package Monday to regulate the placement and operation of smoke shops, saying too many illegally run shops are popping up in the city.
Council members hope the proposals aim to reduce youth exposure and improve community safety.
The package includes measures introduced by Council Members Tony Glover, Zac Blanchard, and Jermaine Jones.
Business owners also say illegal smoke shops have begun to undercut their businesses.
What the bills say
Glover's resolution calls on the Legislative Investigations Committee to examine how smoke shops operate across the city, their concentration in specific neighborhoods, and their potential effects on youth behavior, health outcomes, and local safety.
The Smoke Shop Use Standards Bill, proposed by Blanchard, would formally define a "smoke shop" as any retail establishment primarily engaged in the sale or on-site consumption of tobacco products, vaping devices, or cannabis-related paraphernalia that devotes at least 10% of its floor area to such items.
The measure also seeks to ban smoke shops within 500 feet of schools, recreation centers or parks, and within 1,500 feet of another smoke shop.
A separate proposal by Jones, the Display Luminance Bill, would set limits on how bright window displays or retail lighting can be when visible from public streets. The goal is to reduce distractions for drivers and minimize marketing that could appeal to minors.
If approved, lighting would be capped at a maximum luminance of 5,000 candelas per square meter during the day and 500 candelas per square meter at night.
A candela is the SI unit used to measure how bright light is in a specific direction, according to the Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).
"This legislative package is a smart, community-driven approach to balancing business activity with public safety," Cohen said in a statement. "By putting clear rules in place, Baltimore is sending a message that we support entrepreneurship, but never at the expense of our neighborhoods or our youth."
Businesses in support
Christi Kekich, COO of GreenLabs Inc. in Fells Point, spoke in support of the bills on Monday.
GreenLabs has been around since 2018 and has a number of safeguards in place. As soon as you enter the building, you have to show your ID to verify you're at least 21. You also don't get to touch any of the product unless you're buying it.
Kekich said illegally run smoke shops don't do any of that.
"They're selling unregulated, unsafe, out-of-state cannabis products and — in many cases — selling to minors," Kekich said.
Glover and other council members said they're hearing about these smoke shops constantly.
"I had a call last night from an individual who's telling me he's using fentanyl test strips to test his marijuana because some of these shops are lacing the marijuana with fentanyl," Glover said.
East Monument Street is an area where a lot of these shops are popping up, according to Glover. He said when he and his staff started investigating this, they saw 13 shops pop up in a three-block radius.
A worker at Green Jungle Smoke Shop on East Monument Street, who spoke with WJZ anonymously, also agreed these illegal smoke shops are a problem — especially since they don't follow all of the rules.
Kekich said it's as much a fairness problem as it is public safety.
"We get random inspections all the time. We get fines by the [Maryland Cannabis Administration], and these other businesses have none of that. So, they have no regulations they have to follow, they have no laws," Kekich said.
Cohen and other council members stressed that the shops doing it right won't be impacted by these bills.
"We're not trying to take away the right of adults to use legal cannabis or any tobacco products, or a store's ability to sell them," Cohen said. "But, if you want to do business in Baltimore, do it the right way."
The bills will likely be tweaked, the city council members said, depending on how the public responds to them.
