Hampton city leaders say the rules they put in place this year to rein in vape shops aren’t working, and now the city wants state lawmakers to hand over more authority to finish the job. More than two dozen vape shops currently operate in Hampton, and officials say some are slipping past the city’s restrictions by rebranding themselves as ordinary convenience stores selling tobacco products.
Hampton City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve the final version of the city’s legislative request, a package that includes a push for more control over tobacco and vape retailers, according to The Virginian-Pilot. The request comes less than a year after Hampton adopted its own local restrictions on where the shops can operate, restrictions that officials now admit have loopholes.
Hampton is asking state lawmakers for more authority over tobacco and vape retailers.
How Shops Are Getting Around the Rules
In January, Hampton limited vape shop hours to 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and required tobacco or hemp shops to sit at least 1,000 feet from a school or child day care center. The ordinance also set a distance requirement between shops, though accounts of the exact buffer differ — the Pilot reported it as a half mile, while citizenportal.ai described the planning commission’s buffer as one mile, adopted after public comment. Existing shops were grandfathered in, with the rules applying to new stores and to any shop that ceases operating for at least two years…