COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein is suing a smoke shop in Hilliard for allegedly selling flavored tobacco to underage teens, which he said violates the city’s flavored tobacco ban.
He said there has been evidence of this particular smoke shop over the past couple of years—once they get busted—trying to sell their license and the shop to another entity that looks like it’s the same.
Klein said this shop in Hilliard, called Smoke House, disregards the law, because there was allegedly another recent transfer of title and ownership of the company.
“The city of Columbus historically has had pretty robust tobacco regulations on the book,” Klein said. “[The smoke shop has] questionable sales, whether they’re selling cannabis like marijuana type products. They continue to sell flavored tobacco even though it’s in violation of Columbus law.”
According to the Ohio Department of Heallth, one in three cancer deaths are caused by smoking.
Natalie Rine, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, spoke to the impact on young people.
“Nicotine in any amount is gonna be addictive, and it happens very quickly. It can cause damage to a developing brain, and brains are developing all throughout the teenage years, even into, you know, early 20s,” Rine said. “With regards to vaping, I think prevention is the key to keep our kids healthy.”
Over the last few years, the city has been in a fight with lawmakers over what they can enforce.
On the state level, Gov. Mike DeWine has made it a priority to keep flavored tobacco out of kids’ hands.
The Governor has initiated legislation focusing on efforts to increase the purchase of age for tobacco products and raising the vaping product tax.
“Youth e-cigarette use has skyrocketed to what both the U.S. Surgeon General and the FDA have called “epidemic levels,” with more than 3.6 million middle and high school students now using e-cigarettes,” DeWine said. “The tobacco and vaping companies use, among other efforts, a simple marketing ploy to get kids addicted to their products. They lure kids with sweet flavors — such as fruit, candy, chocolate, menthol, mint — get them hooked on massive quantities of nicotine, and then make it all seem cool on social media.”
The evidence, Klein said, he has gathered against the Smoke House comes from Columbus Public Health. Right now, it’s a first attempt from the Columbus office to make sure this shop follows the law.
This shop has been changing ownership, according to the city attorney.
On top of everything, nuisance abatement laws don’t run with the business, Klein said, whoever inherits the shop, will inherit the court order for whatever it is.
“This is our first of its kind lawsuit that I’m aware of focused solely on tobacco, a tobacco shop,” Klein said. “At a minimum get the court to declare them to follow the law. and if they don’t find themselves in contempt and then at a maximum potentially shut them down if they’re not willing to do that.”
Spectrum News 1 reached out to the owner of the Smoke House but hasn’t received a response.
The preliminary hearing is scheduled for this coming Monday.
If tobacco business owners don’t obey the law, Klein said, more lawsuits may be coming down the pike.
“I make my plea with the tobacco retailers is just follow the law,” Klein said. “It’s not fair to the good guys who are trying to sell products, and that’s true for any business, when you have a rogue business that doesn’t care about the law, it hurst the people that are trying to do it the right way.”