Marijuana leaves and other cannabis-related imagery used to advertise local vape shops may soon be prohibited in Columbia as the city council considers more new rules for shops that sell hemp products like CBD and Delta-8.
Columbia City Council is looking at restricting the images and language smoke and vape shops can use in their logos and advertising. A proposed new ordinance would ban stores from using marijuana leaves or other cannabis imagery on any store signage. The rules would also ban stores from alluding to medical uses for their products by using words like “pharmacy” or “farmacy” in their names or advertising.
“Some of the signage on stores around town and other places tend to make these look like medical shops,” Columbia attorney Jessica Kinard explained to city council members at a committee meeting last week. The rules would extend to signs in and outside of the store, as well as to any advertising being used around the city.
Mayor Daniel Rickenmann’s office requested the new rules.
“He wants to decrease the deception, specifically for our youth and students,” the mayor’s aide, Payton Lang, explained during the committee meeting.
Council members supported the new rules with the addition of a 90-day grace period for businesses to comply with the new restrictions. Now, it requires two readings from the full council to become law.
Columbia City Council has been increasing rules for vape shops for the past several years and the hemp industry has seen massive growth nationwide. Some industry experts worry that regulations have not kept up with the dramatic rise in availability of products like Delta-8 and other hemp-derived items that contain the chemical compound THC, which is also found in marijuana.
In 2022, the city passed a new law restricting how close new vape shops could set up nearby existing shops.
“We have spent several years trying to reduce the number of bars that were in the Five Points area, now we’re filling them up with CBD oil and vape shops,” former city councilman Howard Duvall said at the time. “We’re going from one bad industry to another.”
The city has also required vape shops to provide a warning for Delta-8 and similar products that says using the products could lead to the user failing a drug test, which industry experts agree is a possibility with Delta-8 products because they contain THC.
Local police and business owners have been at odds over what state and federal laws allow when it comes to hemp products that contain THC. In 2023, Columbia police told vape shop owners that Delta-8 products and similar items containing THC are illegal in the state. Shop owners have pushed back saying that state law is not specific enough.
H/T: www.yahoo.com
