Norwalk seeks to crack down on vape shops due to spike in illegal Cannabis sales
Norwalk Seeks Tougher Measures to Combat Illegal Cannabis Sales at Vape Shops.
In the wake of the recent bust of a local smoke shop and other similar incidents, Norwalk leaders are seeking a way to crack down on vape and smoke shops that are selling illegal cannabis and high-THC items.
“Since the legalization of adult-use cannabis in 2020, not only has the city of Norwalk but the whole state of Connecticut seen increased growth of smoke shops and vape shops in their communities, and Norwalk is not immune to that,” said Norwalk’s Chief of Police James Walsh during the Common Council's Ordinance Committee meeting Tuesday night.
With the increase in storefronts, Norwalk police’s special service division has monitored and investigated the illegal sale of cannabis and high-THC products at vape and smoke shops, Walsh said.
“We are up to over 14 successful investigations over the past three years where undercover officers going in there were able to successfully purchase cannabis right over the counter from these vape shops,” Walsh said.
This month Norwalk police busted a smoke shop on Connecticut Avenue that was found illegally selling fentanyl-laced cannabis. While Norwalk police have busted shops for illegal cannabis and high-THC sales, Walsh said they lack the authority to truly punish the bad actors.
“It’s been a very difficult way to enforce,” Walsh said. “We’ve seen a lot of recidivism in some of the establishments that we have taken action on, and my experience is, going the criminal justice angle has not been enough just due to the fact that the selling of marijuana, the selling of these products, is still not a high enforcement priority for many courts in Connecticut.”
With rising community concerns, Walsh met with local lawmakers to discuss ways for the city to internally crack down on businesses making illegal sales.
“We’ve seen the shop owners continue this because it’s a very profitable operation for them,” Walsh said. “The mindset in Connecticut is that cannabis is legal for everyone: it’s not.”
Walsh suggested the city consider creating an ordinance that mimics the ordinance that regulates massage parlors in Norwalk by issuing licenses to business owners, managers, and employees. This ordinance was passed to deter human trafficking and prostitution at massage parlors.
“It gave us the power to regulate them internally with the city,” Walsh explained. “Currently, there is no oversight to close any of these smoke shops on the state level.”
“We have found a much more effective way of handling these violations than the traditional criminal justice system,” he added.
Under the new zoning regulations that went into effect in February, vape shops are defined as stores with 25 percent of their floor space occupied by vapes or nicotine products, explained Steve Kleppin, director of Planning and Zoning.
“They put limitations on how many vape shops could be that would be regulated similar to what we did with cannabis establishments,” Kleppin said. “So if you had a vape shop, you couldn’t be within a mile of another vape shop and had some restrictions related to signage and different activities that could happen on the site.”
While the new regulations are still young, they have already proven to be an issue for Planning and Zoning to enforce, given the number of stores that sell nicotine and vape products.
“It’s very tricky to go out if you just think about all the establishments that might sell this, whether it’s a gas station, a corner store, a bodega, a store in a strip plaza, you could have way more than 28 or 30,” Kleppin said.
Changing the zoning regulation could provide more authority for the Planning and Zoning Department to eliminate non-compliant businesses.
“I’m in favor of tightening it up as much as possible, and I think it might go beyond zoning but we could definitely attack it from a two-front way,” Kleppin said.
Members of the Ordinance Committee responded to Walsh and Kleppin’s testimony with action.
“I’m eager to keep engaging and to really figure out the solution that kind of gives us the best power to support good actors and really remove folks who are not acting in the public interest from operating in the city,” said Nora Niedzielski-Eichner, Common Council member.
Taking notes from how other municipalities regulate vape shops and how massage parlors are regulated, the Ordinance Committee will begin drafting a new ordinance.
Walsh vowed to work with the committee to ensure the ordinance is effective and doesn’t have loopholes.
“In my years of experience when it comes to law enforcement, in human behavior, if we don’t clearly define exactly what we want and what we expect, there’s going to be a workaround by the criminals,” he said. “That is what they are doing now, so we have to just use that mindset.”
