Akron prohibits new vape shop clusters, sets rules for recreational marijuana dispensaries

Akron wants to stop clusters of vape shops from cropping up across the city.

On Monday, Akron City Council approved new rules for vape shops, as well as recreational marijuana businesses.

The vape store legislation creates a 2,500-foot minimum distance between vape shops that operate in the city. It defines vape shops as stores who earn 25% of their retail sales from inhalable nicotine products and products used for inhaling nicotine, such as oil pods and cartridges and batteries.

City Planning Director Kyle Julien said the legislation does not apply to existing vape shops.

The ordinance says, “all new vape shops must be in a district allowing retail uses and receive conditional use approval.”

It states that the number of vape shops has increased in Akron, as elsewhere, and that at least two vape shops are within 500 feet of each other.

“A healthy retail district benefits from a mix of uses and can suffer from retail blight if only a few indistinguishable stores are present,” the ordinance states. “The over-abundance and concentration of vape shops has the potential to create pockets of blight, prevent higher and better usage, and create disinvestment by other local retailers throughout Akron.”

Vape shop owners support city's new limits

Adel Muntaser, manager of Flash Vapes on East Exchange Street in Akron, said he supports the vape shop legislation because he's seen increased localized competition since his store opened up about 4½ years ago.

"There is a lot of them," Muntaser said of new vape shops. "They just keep on popping up everywhere, actually."

The Flash Vapes on East Exchange Street meets the city of Akron's definition of a vape shop, he said, with many of its sales coming from nicotine vape products.

Flash Vapes' East Exchange Street location is one of multiple locations owned by a family business, Muntaser said. Flash Vapes also has locations in Kent, Fairlawn, Massillon, Alliance and Ashland.

Mike Husain, manager of Smoke Smugglers on Brown Street in Akron, also said he supports the vape shop legislation, calling the increase in shops "a slap in the face" to existing business owners.

Husain said Smoke Smugglers is a head shop with a small percentage of its sales coming from vape products. Its sales mainly come from glass pipes, kratom and hemp-derived products such as THCA and "delta" THC products, such as delta-8 THC, Husain said.

But Husain said he's seen vape shops focusing more on kratom and hemp-derived products, edging into head shops' territory, so Smoke Smugglers has started selling more vapes to remain competitive.

"So, now, that's why a lot of the head shops have decided, 'You know what? They're stepping on our toes. Now, we're going to carry vapes,'" Husain said. "So, that's pretty much how it happened."

Husain said he opened Smoke Smugglers' current location about two years ago but he's been in the head shop business for more than 15 years.

Husain said he's also part of a family business that owns 15 head shops across the state with different names. This includes in Akron, where Husain said he's managed shops in Highland Square and Kenmore, which the group decided to close down due to robberies and loitering.

Recently, Husain said his family was considering expansion in Summit County but is now leaning toward pausing opening more vape shops because of the increased competition.

Husain said head shops that used to make $2,000 to $4,000 in revenue a day are now making about $1,000 a day, equating each business's proverbial piece of the revenue pie getting "smaller and smaller every time another shop opens."

What oversight does Akron have over recreational marijuana businesses?

Meanwhile, the recreational marijuana legislation that passed Akron City Council creates a requirement for individual recreational marijuana businesses to obtain conditional use approval, which is a requirement that medical marijuana businesses operating in the city already need to follow.

The Ohio law that legalized recreational marijuana in December stated that the first businesses to operate in that market — prospective “dual-use” businesses that already work with medical marijuana — will receive their state licenses by Sept. 7.

However, the requirement to obtain conditional use approval from the city will apply to medical marijuana businesses that receive dual-use certificates of operation from the state, said city Zoning Manager Michael Antenucci.

AT-CPC of Ohio, LLC, doing business as Klutch Cannabis, is the only Akron business that has already received dual-use certificates of operation from the state Division of Cannabis Control. Its certificates of operation are for cultivation and processing.

No marijuana companies have yet received dual-use certificates of operations for their dispensary operations.

Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron prohibits new vape shop clusters, sets rules for recreational marijuana dispensaries