Wilmington City Council passed an ordinance 9-0, establishing a temporary moratorium on smoke shops.
The ordinance works by enacting a moratorium on business licenses for smoke shops or businesses selling tobacco products in the city. It’ll be in effect for one year unless Council repeals it earlier.
Councilmember Chris Johnson sponsored the ordinance. He said he supports a well-regulated marijuana industry, but he wants to make sure places selling marijuana-adjacent products are adequately licensed and monitored.
“We found in the city there was just this outbreak of these unregulated smoke shops,” Johnson said. “So not only is it a city problem, it's a state problem. You go anywhere in the county corridor, every single commercial building is a smoke shop. So enough is enough. We're tired of it.”
Councilmember Zanthia Oliver voted in favor of the ordinance and said Council should be working on more legislation and ensuring city code is enforced at local shops.
The ordinance passed 9-0 with four absent.
The moratorium does not affect smoke shops currently operating but prevents new licenses from being issued. Councilmembers are largely concerned with the sale of unregulated marijuana products.
Federal legislation defines Delta-9 THC products as having a maximum concentration of 0.3% at most, but there aren’t federal or state requirements that products are tested.
Councilmember Michelle Harlee said she worries some shops will claim they won’t sell those products, obtain a license, then sell them anyway.
“And I think part of what Councilmember Oliver was saying is that there needs to be some type of monitoring, especially for the businesses that did not get a license to be a smoke shop, that they have a license but not to be a smoke shop, but they have those types of products in their stores,” Harlee said.
Councilmember Johnson said greater reform of the city’s licensing process is needed to protect minority communities, where the bulk of the shops open up, and young people, who are targeted through advertising.
