After passing a “small box store” bill aimed at curbing the spread of dollar stores and their ilk, Baltimore City Council members have now introduced legislation intended to rein in the proliferation of smoke and vape shops.

“We are seeing an increasing number of illegal smoke shops popping up all over East and West Baltimore,” City Council President Zeke Cohen said at last night’s meeting.

“We know that too often the products are being marketed to our children,” Cohen said. “They in some cases contain extremely harmful materials that without proper regulations in place can be incredibly poisonous, particularly to young children whose brains are still developing.”

“This Council wants to be crystal clear: if you are going to open up a business in Baltimore, do it the right way. Do not prey on the vulnerability of our kids and our communities,” he warned.

“Do not prey on the vulnerability of our kids and our communities”  – Council President Zeke Cohen.

A zoning bill introduced by Councilman Zac Blanchard would create a land-use class for “smoke shops,” defining them as any business that dedicates at least 10% of its floor area to the sale or consumption of tobacco, vaping and cannabis products.

Bill 25-0114 specifies how far smoke shops must be from schools, parks and recreation centers, and sets a minimum distance for how far a new shop can be from an existing shop.

• Controlling the spread of dollar stores in Baltimore – will this legislation do it? (9/20/25)

Like the small box bill that was approved on final reader after some procedural hiccups, Blanchard’s bill makes smoke shops a conditional use in commercial and mixed-use districts that must be approved by the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals (BMZA).

“We modeled this both on the dollar stores bill as well as some legislation from Prince George’s County that accomplishes a similar goal,” he said.

The dollar store bill was originally written to target corporate chain stores that had been popping up in the city, harming independent small businesses and causing problems with litter and other issues, the sponsors said. At the request of the city Law Department, that language was stricken, leaving the definition as a store “having a floor area of 5,000 to 12,000 square feet [that] offers for sale assorted inexpensive small goods in small units.”

The bill now goes to the mayor’s desk for his signature.

Bright Lights, Sick Children

Two other bills on smoke shops were introduced by members who described their impacts in their districts.

Bill 25-0115 sets limits on how bright a smoke shop’s window signs and outside fluorescent lights can be.

“Those same corner stores, bodegas we often patronized as children to get our candy, now they’re turning into smoke shops,” Councilman Jermaine Jones said.

“Really aggressive bright lights that are often left on – even in residential neighborhoods, even after they close – are making it hard for residents to sleep at night, with the light coming through their windows,” the East Baltimore representative said.

“We’re seeing that kids can enter too many of these smoke shops”  – Councilman Antonio Glover.

Fellow councilman Antonio Glover introduced legislation calling for an informational hearing on smoke shops, noting that 13 shops opened in a three-block area around East Monument Street in recent months.

He charged that some of the businesses are selling marijuana products containing fentanyl and other illegal substances.

“We’re seeing that kids can enter too many of these smoke shops. I’m getting personal calls and inboxes on social media in reference to a kid’s been hospitalized by a substance from one of those shops,” he said.

He said the informational hearing would help educate the Council and the public and offer “the perfect opportunity to stop this cancer now before it gets worse because all we’re doing is creating the next generation of addicts.”