Kansas Law Enforcement Launches Raids Against ‘Brazen’ Cannabis Sales In Storefronts

*“The places that we’ve identified today are nothing but weed dealers in
strip malls.”*

*By Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector*

Kansas Bureau of Investigation director Tony Mattivi and Attorney General
Kris Kobach (R) announced a crackdown Wednesday on “brazen” sales of
marijuana and THC products as law enforcement raided 10 shops in six cities
across the state.

The two spoke to reporters at a news conference in Topeka while the raids
were underway, and they said additional stores would be targeted later
Wednesday and again on Thursday.

Mattivi said the KBI was targeting illegal retail drug sales because
teenagers were suffering dire health consequences from consuming products
with high concentrations of THC.

“I was at one of these locations earlier today,” Mattivi said. “The
violations of the Kansas Controlled Substances Act are brazen. These places
are selling pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes. They’re selling marijuana bud.
They’re selling marijuana flower in canisters and cigarette by cigarette.

“The places that we’ve identified today are nothing but weed dealers in
strip malls, and we cannot continue to not enforce our controlled substance
laws when we have these substances causing bad effects on Kansas kids.”

Mattivi said a Kansas child would face less resistance buying marijuana
than tobacco cigarettes.

“That has to come to an end, and that’s what we did today,” he said.

The KBI and local law enforcement spent weeks planning the raids in
locations where local prosecutors had agreed to bring charges, Mattivi
said. The initial wave of targets included smoke and vape shots in
Concordia, McPherson, Pratt, Salina, Topeka and Wichita. The seized
products would be sent to KBI or private labs for testing, Mattivi said.

While Kansas is surrounded by states that have legalized marijuana to some
extent, the drug remains illegal here. Kansas lawmakers have considered
bills in recent years that would legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes,
and the House passed legislation in 2021, but Senate leadership has
stonewalled various proposals. The issue is expected to resurface in the
next year’s legislative session, ahead of election season.

For now, Kobach said, the laws have to be enforced. And, he said, there are
many illegal products available at stores in Kansas, including THC vapes
and THC teas.

“In recent years, enforcement of our laws against marijuana and THC in
Kansas have been intermittently or, in some jurisdictions, not enforced at
all,” Kobach said. “And so this is an announcement that that period of lax
enforcement is ending, and the KBI has taken the lead in identifying places
that have become particularly brazen in their selling of marijuana
products.”

Kobach and Mattivi traced the rise in illegal sales to the 2018 Farm Bill
passed by Congress that legalized some hemp products.

“Since the Farm Bill passed, there’s been a growing acceptance of some of
these products, whether they’re CBD or or THC,” Mattivi said. “Over time,
these shops, I think, have pushed the envelope and pushed the envelope and
pushed the envelope.”

Some of the products, Mattivi said, contain 75-95 percent pure THC.

“Part of the problem that we’re dealing with when it comes to THC and
marijuana is that there has been a continuous rise in the concentration, or
the level of purity, the level of THC, that’s present in these products,”
Mattivi said. “This isn’t the 6 or 7 percent THC ditch weed that a lot of
people in this state are familiar with.”

The KBI said the following stores were raided midday Wednesday: Two EZ
Smoke and Vape locations in Wichita, Whiskey River Trading in Pratt,
Cigarette Outlet in Pratt, Pratt Tobacco and Vape in Pratt, Space Out Smoke
Vapor & Tobacco in Salina, Vapor 100 in Salina, Mountain Gypsy Vape Shop in
Concordia, The Hanging Leaf in McPherson, and Sacred Leaf in Topeka.

*This story was first published by Kansas Reflector.*

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