CANTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — A joint operation between the Canton Police Department and Michigan State Police led to the closure of tobacco shops accused of selling vape products to kids.
“Every week, we see kids with just pants on with their high school logo or hoodies with their high school logo walking in and out — it’s constant,” said Zack Mcardle, who works out at a gym near Vape N Chase. “Pretty much the main customers I see here are kids.”
King Tobacco and Vape N Chase have been on the Canton Police Department’s radar for months. The first blip came from complaints from residents. Those complaints were later confirmed through a series of decoy buys by high school students working undercover for police.
On Friday, Canton police and MSP executed search warrants at both shops and got the green light to have the city’s building department shut them down.
“Most of the businesses in Canton follow the rules like they’re supposed to,” Capt. Joseph Bialy of the Canton Police Department said. “But when you have those outliers, the message we would like to send to them is if you’re going to be an outlier and you’re going to sell these products to minors, we’re going to hold you accountable and potentially impact your business sales.”
Canton did not just make the businesses close shop, they’re also seizing their products. Some of the products make their way to Plymouth-Canton Community Schools.
“We’ve had students that had ingested a vape pen thinking it’s simply a vape pen, then they find out there are high levels of THC in it and they get very sick, up to and including having to be hospitalized,” Josh Meier said.
Meier is the district’s director of school safety and security.
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“For us, it’s a problem we want to address, not necessarily from a discipline standpoint — although, we will administer discipline — but we want kids to understand the health implications of this: what this vaping may do to them 10 or five years down the road,” Meier said.
Some vape products are often labeled as having a THC content of less than .3% but lab reports show the total cannabinoids, which includes THC, at nearly 80%.
The shops’ owner will have to go to court to reopen. He was unavailable for comment Friday.
The two employees taken into custody could face felony charges for illegal vape sales.
