Vape, cannabis rules head to Clinton council
Clinton City Planner Preston Stokes looks over documents after a meeting. (photo:Ben Pounds )
City Planner Preston Stokes said it will likely be up for a vote at the upcoming meeting at Clinton City Hall on Monday Feb. 23 if City Manager Roger Houck and other staff approve.
The regulations would only allow for three such shops per 10,000 residents, and defines them as stores dedicating 25% or more of their floor space to “electronic cigarettes/vaping devices, E-liquids/cartridges, edibles, concentrates, or oil containing cannabis derivatives (including but not limited to CBD, Delta-8, Delta-9 or similar compounds permitted by law) Kratom, glassware, pipes, vaporizers and other smoking or inhalation devices.”
Stokes said this would permit many gas stations to continue selling these products.
The shops also have to be at least 1,000 feet from other similar shops, and at least 500 feet from day-cares, public or private schools, or public parks.
While these rules would not immediately affect the current eight stores that fit that description in Clinton, it would, if passed, apply to any new stores.
If existing stores change their layouts for six months to no longer have 25% or more space dedicated to the vape or cannabis products, they, too would have to follow the new regulations.
The Planning Commission took on the issue after the nonprofit Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention of Anderson County proposed regulating these shops at a December meeting.
Stokes said the regulations are similar to what other cities have done, including ones in Middle Tennessee but not Anderson County or elsewhere East Tennessee.
Clinton Mayor Scott Burton is also on Planning Commission. He voiced his support for the proposal both during the meeting and in comments to The Courier News.
Burton said he was concerned about THC specifically.
“They have found that if it’s warmed up in any form or fashion, it can be just as potent or more powerful than marijuana that you can buy in the state of Tennessee (only) illegally,” Burton said, adding that he wants to make cannabis rules “as restrictive as possible.”
“Hopefully we’re protecting some of younger people from being exposed to that at a younger age,” he said.
