‘They literally see their children walking across the street to purchase these products’: Task force to regulate over 70 Henrico vape, smoke shops

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A task force to regulate vape shops comprised of attorneys and county departments will make its way to Henrico County.

During a special Board of Supervisors meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 26, members discussed that the current regulations in place don't cast a wide enough net to solve existing issues.

The Tasks Force will be auditing for any illegal activity, including selling to someone underage, or selling other illegal drugs or products.

Supervisor Roscoe Cooper said these stores intentionally market and sell to underage children, specifically reaching students at local schools.

“There’s a vape shop across the street from Fairfield Middle School. So literally right there in the Varina district, across the street from Highland Springs High School," Cooper said. "On Airport Drive, there’s a vape shop, and administrators and teachers have informed me, they literally see their children, the students from their schools, walking across the street to purchase these products.”

Cooper added that many vape and smoke shops were not being truthful on the applications and were raising red flags.

"They're also targeting young people. The age to buy tobacco products legally is 21," Cooper said. "They are not ID'ing the persons purchasing and they are intentionally selling and marketing to those young people under 21 years old."

The county aims to scrutinize businesses, which reached over 70 businesses as of the time of reporting, within this category. These businesses will be audited regarding delinquent taxes and their financial dealings with the county, Cooper said.

"What they were doing and what they're doing is, it's not just a smoke shop, it's not just a tobacco shop. It's actually being advertised as a vape shop," Cooper said.

Previously, the board passed regulations that prevented vape shops from opening within 1,000 feet of a school and within 2,000 feet of a park or another vape shop.

Police have become "more aggressive" in cracking down on illegal smoke and vape shops. When officials met with a representative last week, they were told Henrico was "the first county to make this type of concerted contact and want[s] to establish a working relationship as closely as we can with the AG's office."

Cooper said they are not targeting legal tobacco products like Wawa and 7-Eleven, but rather, businesses selling illegally.

"We want to inform our community as much as we can," Cooper said. "It's important that the parents and guardians partner with the schools and partner with us as the local government because we care about their families, we care about their children."

He said residents are seeing the impacts hit as low as sixth and seventh grades.

Henrico will release more information online for residents to see which stores are legal in the future.