The indefinite closure of four Smithfield smoke shops for alleged zoning violations tied to a police raid is the latest effort by the town to keep a closer eye on vape stores.

Town officials affixed pink “zoning violation, no sales permitted” signs to the doors of the stores after Smithfield Police said a Feb. 10 search had found nearly $40,000 worth of marijuana being sold out of the establishments.

Planet Tobacco & Mart, the newest of the four smoke shops, opened in 2023 at the former 7-Eleven on South Church Street. It was unpopular from the start with Smithfield’s Planning Commission, whose members conceded they couldn’t legally stop prohibit the business because the town’s zoning ordinance at that time didn’t differentiate between smoke shops and other forms of retail permitted by right in commercial zoning.

The Town Council voted to close the loophole later that year by amending the zoning ordinance to require special use permits for any future “recreational substance establishments,” which are now defined as stores devoting 25% or more of their total inventory, or 15% or more of their total shelf space, to tobacco, any noncombustible product containing nicotine or vaping fluid, hemp and raw materials made from hemp, Kratom or cannabidiol, also known as CBD.

The change didn’t initially apply to Planet Tobacco or the other three existing smoke shops in town, which at that point were grandfathered under the prior language.

The town does, however, have the authority to revoke an existing establishment’s business license for zoning ordinance violations, according to Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary, who said the sale of marijuana is not a permitted use in any zoning. The state’s 2020 decriminalization of possessing up to an ounce of marijuana presently only allows the growing of up to four marijuana plants in homes for personal use.

Clary said if any of the four closed stores wished to reopen, they would no longer be grandfathered and would have to apply for a special use permit as a recreational substance establishment.

Police say the multi-agency four-month undercover investigation began with a tip alleging the four stores were selling their wares to underage customers in violation of a state law that sets 21 as the minimum age to buy vape pens, a type of electronic cigarette that heats a liquid to deliver nicotine or other drugs and chemicals in aerosolized form. However, the only charges to date against four store employees arrested during the sting pertain to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Retail marijuana remains illegal in Virginia though legislation is pending that would legalize its retail sale by 2026.

Officials with Isle of Wight County Schools have also drawn attention in recent years to the proliferation of vape stores and the related issue of vaping supplies falling into the hands of students.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2024 annual national youth tobacco survey, 1.2 million, or 7.8%, of high school students nationwide reported using e-cigarettes. More than one in four self-identified teen users said they used vape products daily.

“All stores are required to follow the same state codes and ask for state identification to verify the purchasers’ age before selling the product,” said Deputy 1st Class Alecia Paul, a spokeswoman for the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office.

Smithfield High School Principal Patricia Cuffee, during budget discussions last February, told the School Board more than half of all student suspensions as of that point in the 2023-24 school year had been tied to vape pens. For every vape offense, a student receives five days out-of-school suspension, and 10 days if the vape is found to be laced with THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana. 

Jason Brinkley, the school division’s security and emergency management specialist, said at last year’s budget meeting that THC offenses, in addition to triggering a student’s suspension, are also brought to the sheriff’s deputy serving as the school resource officer for referral to the criminal justice system.

“Almost all cases are sent to diversion,” Paul said, where charges are dropped after a period of probation.

“Our deputies compliment and try to parallel the school policies on vaping,” Paul said. “Typically we don’t charge until a third or subsequent offense. Charging is at the deputy’s discretion based on their knowledge and past incidents.”

In 2023 and 2024, the School Board debated buying vape detection systems, but those devices ultimately weren’t purchased, according to IWCS spokeswoman Lynn Briggs. Vape detection systems, according to the websites of multiple manufacturers, detect the chemicals emitted by vaping devices.

“Upon further investigation, we discovered a trend on social media platforms on how to defeat the vape detectors in schools,” Briggs said. “Because of this, the vape detectors have not been pursued any further.”

Vaping devices have, however, been confiscated as a result of the new weapon detection systems Isle of Wight County Schools is in the process of installing at its two high schools, Briggs said.

“It’s safe to say that vapes continue to be a problem in our schools,” she said.