Baltimore council unveils bills to curb smoke shops, orders informational hearing with health and enforcement agencies

Baltimore City Council members introduced a package of measures on Oct. 27 aimed at curbing the proliferation of smoke and vape shops and asked city and state agencies to brief the council on enforcement and public-health impacts.

Councilman Zeke Glover (lead sponsor of the resolution) told colleagues that the informational hearing is intended to "educate, not just us on the city council, but also the public," and cited a local concentration: "within a 3 block radius of Myers Street, we have a total of 13 smoke shops," he said, adding that he had received reports of "their kid being hospitalized by a substance from 1 of those smoke shops on Monument Street." The resolution (City Council Resolution 25-0037R) invites representatives from the Baltimore City Health Department, Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, Department of Planning and Baltimore City Information & Technology, and requests participation from the Maryland Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Commission and the Maryland Department of Health Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control.

Separately, Councilmember Blanchard introduced City Council Bill 25-0114 to create a specific land-use category for smoke and vape shops, require conditional-use approval by the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals in commercial and mixed-use districts, set use standards, and establish minimum-distance requirements from sensitive uses such as schools and recreation centers. "We modeled this both on the dollar stores bill as well as some legislation from PG County," Blanchard said, and urged community and business input on the specific distances and other details.

Councilmember Jones introduced City Council Bill 25-0115 to set limits on the luminance of window displays, saying bright window lights commonly used by smoke shops can remain on in residential neighborhoods and disrupt sleep. "One thing they often have in common is really aggressive bright lights, that are often left on when in residential neighborhoods even after they close, often making it hard for residents to sleep at night," Jones said.

Clerk announcements indicated Bill 25-0114 has been assigned to the Land Use and Transportation Committee; Resolution 25-0037R was assigned to the Committee on Legislative Investigations for an informational hearing where health and enforcement agencies will be requested to appear.

Council members framed the package as targeted at illegal operators and at marketing practices that expose children to harmful products. Council leadership repeatedly said the measures were not intended to be "anti-business" but to remove "bad actors who would seek to prey on vulnerable kids and our communities." No final zoning or regulatory thresholds (specific distance measurements, luminance numerical limits) were adopted at introduction; sponsors said those details will be the subject of committee input and public engagement.

The council’s actions on Oct. 27 were limited to introduction and committee assignment; no committee-level hearings or regulatory thresholds were adopted at this meeting. The informational hearing requested in Resolution 25-0037R will set out enforcement roles and options for the council to consider in future legislation.

Provenance: Topic introduced at 00:06:13 (council president announcement) and covered through Councilman Glover’s remarks at 00:13:25. Evidence excerpts: 00:06:13–00:13:25.