Cleveland City Council on Monday adopted ordinances aimed at addressing smoke and vape shops in the city, which both community and council members have argued represent a safety and health threat while crowding out other businesses.
The ordinances prohibit new smoke shops from opening closer than two miles from an existing store, limit advertising to 25% coverage of exterior windows, set age limits on the sale of tobacco and vaping products and prohibit the sale of marijuana in these shops. Smoke shops would also have to obtain licenses and be subjected to two inspections per year.
Mayor Justin Bibb is expected to sign the ordinances into law this week.
While councilmembers unanimously supported the ordinances, members including Ward 16 Councilperson Brian Kazy and Ward 8 Councilperson Michael Polensek, wanted assurances that there would be sufficient enforcement available for the new laws.
Kazy warned during the Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee hearing earlier in the day that there would be consequences if enforcement was lacking.
"I am not a fan anymore of passing legislation just so that we can grab headlines and then no follow-up to it, right?" he said. “If this isn't enforced, I'll lead the charge to repeal the whole legislation because there's no sense passing ordinances or laws and not having somebody to enforce them.”
David Margolius, Cleveland's director of public health, responded that the Cleveland Department of Health has six enforcement officials assigned to enforce the ordinances, and is looking to assign four more staff to assist. The department also has money allocated to hire interns to act as undercover shoppers to ensure products are not being sold to underage buyers.
The department has also secured $100,000 from a tobacco addiction nonprofit to help support this enforcement program, he said.
These regulations have been driven by council’s and residents' concerns about the rapid growth of smoke shops, which now number approximately 600 in the city, according to Margolius.
“The number of smoke shops in Cleveland and the negative health consequences they have on our residents is truly at a crisis point," he said earlier this month. "There are just way too many smoke shops in the City of Cleveland, and this legislation is a solution to that."
Councilmembers, including Joseph T. Jones, who represents Ward 1, said action is needed to protect the community from these shops and the products they sell.
"I could not believe the products that they were selling," Jones told Ideastream Public Media. "Some of the products, I'm very concerned, because now you're adding other dangerous substances to it and synthetic substances and synthetic cannabis."
The affected shops are businesses that use at least 20% of their floor space to sell kratom, CBD, delta-8 and other cannabinoids; tobacco and nicotine products; electric smoking devices (vapes); and accessories to these products.
The vote, which followed unanimous approval of the ordinances by the Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, is the latest in a series of committee votes since the ordinances were first introduced in early February.
