Vaping sparks conversation on what council can and cannot allow

By Neal Hogden

The Abbotsford City Council debated the merits of allowing vape licenses to be approved for such businesses in the city at its meeting on April 1.

At the March 20 council meeting, the council voted to approve a cigarette, tobacco and electronic vaping device retail license for Great Deals LLC. At the April 1 meeting, a license for All New Tobacco Vape Outlet LLC was on the agenda.

The conversation was led by Alderman Jeremiah Zeiset who’s position on vaping has been on display in prior council meetings as he has voted “no” to approving vape licenses for applicants in past meetings.

He told the council that school resource officer Patrick Leichtnam had facilitated a meeting about vaping at the Abbotsford High School a few weeks ago and said he wanted to bring some of that information to the council when considering the vape licenses. Zeiset said he learned a lot about the act of vaping and the harmful effects it can have on people, specifically youth in the community. For that reason, Zeiset asked Leichtnam to present some of the information to the council.

Vape devices are mostly battery-powered devices that deliver vapor made up of nicotine, flavoring, other chemicals and sometimes, THC, according to the national institute on drug abuse (NIDA).

Leichtnam ran the council through some of the trends he had seen from vendors and kids in the Colby and Abbotsford area. He said a popular product that people have been buying in Colby is Delta-8. He said the store owner will tell the people looking to purchase the product that it is legal and usable without consequence. He said that is not the case.

“If I test [the Delta-8] with the test that we have as police officers, it will show a positive test for THC,” Leichtnam said. “That’s what I arrest them for. That’s what the other officers arrest them for. I don’t care what the label says.”

He said on top of finding Delta-8 products, the schools have increased their attempts to limit vaping at school. Leichtnam said Abbotsford schools have installed vaping sensors in hopes of catching students using vape devices at school.

Leichtnam said he did an interview with a Wausau television news station around Halloween time and between that period and the beginning of the school year, he had already confiscated 18 vape devices, 15 of which had some semblance of THC in them. He said even the vape devices that are distributing nicotine are doses that are higher than other government-regulated nicotine products such as cigarettes.

Next, Zeiset said he would like the council to discuss the ability of the city council to limit vape devices from being sold within city limits. He said he would be in favor of changing ordinances to keep vape shops from being able to do business within the city.

“I hate to see kids get hooked on something that is going to cause a lot of problems in their lives,” Zeiset said. “So for me, if we’re supposed to look at things for the good of our community, we need to at least talk about whether or not we want vape shops.”

Leichtnam said an eighth grader last year overdosed on Delta-8. He also cautioned about where the vape applicant wanted to locate the shop, saying a shop on Main Street that was right across from an arcade is not an accident.

“They are targeting our kids,” Leichtnam said.

Leichtnam dove into the application and why it was alarming to him. He said that the potential owner is the same person who

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that the potential owner is the same person who owns a vape shop in Medford. He said he contacted the Medford Police Department who said they’ve had 10 complaints saying the shop is selling to underage kids since the shop opened in October. He said there are other aspects of the shop that concern him including the transparency behind who actually owns the property and what is on official documents.

Leichtnam said during his investigation into the applicant, he found the same company to have shops in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Texas.

“All of these things to me just raise a ton of red flags,” Leichtnam said.

He said he took a trip to the Medford location and found the store to not only sell vapes, but bongs, grinders and other drug paraphernalia. He said a substantial part of the store contained some form of THC-derivative product. Leichtnam said even though the Delta-8 and Delta-9 products fall into a gray area in the state of Wisconsin, when arrested, the products will show up as THC on the drug tests the CAPD uses.

Leichtnam said All New Tobacco Vape Outlet LLC is both the company that is applying for an Abbotsford cigarette, tobacco and electronic vaping device retail application and also the legal business name of the company in Medford. The name of the stores in Wisconsin is Smoke World Vape.

Leichtnam said in his opinion, with all the different names associated with the licensing, tax roll and applications, he felt the operation was “shady.”

Mayor Jim Weix asked what the city is supposed to do to prevent kids from accessing this type of product.

“Would we look at this like we look at alcohol? You have to be a certain age before you can use this stuff?”

“We already regulate the age for voting, alcohol purchase, tobacco purchases, firearm purchases,” Leichtnam said. “Why isn’t our government doing something to regulate these deltas and THC items for purchase? I don’t know. Our problem is already ahead of the law.” Leichtnam said in his conversations with the Medford Police Department, they cautioned against allowing vape licenses to be approved.

“Medford PD said, ‘The worst thing we ever did was allow them in our city because now all these other things are unregulated and they’re selling it or they’re selling more things than what we know they’re selling,’” Leichtnam said.

“If we deny them the right to sell this product here in town and they’re able to sell it elsewhere, there’s going to be lawsuits [all over],” Weix said. “Do we really want to go there? How the hell are we going to regulate this?”

Zeiset suggested making an ordinance that stated the city did not want vape shops within the city limits. Leichtnam said if the city is allowing cigarette, tobacco and vape licenses to other businesses, he didn’t think the city could deny another business the same license without cause.

City Administrator Josh Soyk said he talked to the city attorney who said technically, the city council doesn’t need to approve the cigarette, tobacco and alcohol licenses. He said if the background check for the owner comes back clean, the city clerk issues the license without council approval.

Zeiset said even if the council couldn’t prevent the store from doing business in the city, they could still create ordinances that limit where the stores could do business or how they could display the devices. For instance, Zeiset said the council could make it a part of the ordinance that the business would need to keep vape devices in locked display cases to avoid theft.

Soyk said another conversation with the city attorney is needed about what the city could do in terms of limiting the business from selling vape products within the city.

Zeiset then asked Soyk if the city clerk could stall the issuance of the license until the city can get ordinances written limiting where and what could be sold in terms of vape products. Soyk said technically, they apply for the license and the clerk is supposed to issue them if there are no background check flags.

Alderman Mason Rachu said the issue was out of the council’s hands.

“It sounds like this is something the state needs to figure out, unfortunately,” Rachu said.

He followed up by saying unless the business is caught doing something that is against the law such as selling to minors, he doesn’t think there is anything the council can do about it.

The council decided to have Soyk talk to the attorney to get clarification on what the council could do and the council did not vote on the agenda item. The business is expected to receive their cigarette, tobacco and vaping license.

Notable Q uote

“They’re targeting our kids.”

Patrick Leichtnam, Abbotsford School Resource Officer, referring to stores that sell vape products.