Editor’s note: Redfern Hemp Co. is a current sponsor of RVA Magazine. This story was produced independently and without editorial control or influence.
Richmond vape and smoke shop owners are pushing back against the city’s enforcement campaign known as Operation Vaporize, saying the crackdown has forced businesses to close and left many immigrant-owned businesses struggling to stay open.
According to reporting from Channel 6, several store owners and their attorney gathered outside City Hall this week to criticize the inspections and shutdowns tied to Operation Vaporize, arguing the enforcement effort has been uneven and overly aggressive. Many of the businesses affected are owned by members of Richmond’s Yemeni-American community.
But the tension between vape shop owners and regulators didn’t start this month.
When RVA Magazine spoke with Richmond vape shop owner Tony Aziz of Native Smoke in December about Virginia’s tightening vape regulations, he said many Yemeni shop owners were hesitant to speak publicly. Aziz said some feared that criticizing enforcement could draw additional scrutiny from regulators. Four months later, as Richmond’s Operation Vaporize inspections and closures spread across the city, several of those same business owners are now speaking out.
In a follow-up conversation, Aziz said his own store had been shut down during the enforcement effort over building code issues he says were inherited from a previous owner. He also said the store had been robbed on Christmas Eve and that despite providing police with photos and video, the suspect has not been identified. Aziz said the closure and theft have left him frustrated as he works to address the violations and reopen the business.
The controversy comes after years of rapid growth in Richmond’s vape and smoke shop market. In neighborhoods across the city, brightly lit storefronts selling vapes, glass pipes, and hemp-derived products have become increasingly common, often replacing traditional corner stores.
That expansion has been driven in part by regulatory gray areas created after the 2018 federal Farm Bill, which legalized hemp and opened the door to a wave of hemp-derived cannabinoids such as Delta-8, Delta-9, and THCA. While technically legal under certain thresholds, those products often resemble traditional cannabis in appearance and effect, creating a confusing landscape for regulators, retailers, and consumers alike.
Some small business owners say that confusion has created an uneven playing field. Shops attempting to follow the rules say they struggle to compete with competitors operating in regulatory gray zones, while enforcement can appear inconsistent across jurisdictions.
Now, with Operation Vaporize, those tensions are spilling into public view.
What Is Operation Vaporize?
Operation Vaporize was launched by the City of Richmond in late 2025 as a multi-agency enforcement effort aimed at bringing vape and smoke shops into compliance with local regulations. City officials say the campaign has already produced a number of violations and product seizures. The results of the enforcement effort can be viewed HERE.
The initiative brings together inspectors from several departments, including the Richmond Police Department, Richmond Fire, and the city’s Planning and Development Review office. The inspections focus on a range of potential violations, including zoning issues, building safety concerns, licensing problems, and the sale of illegal THC products that fall outside Virginia’s current hemp regulations.
City officials say the effort was prompted by the rapid growth of vape and smoke shops across Richmond over the past several years, as well as public pressure to address the industry. In some neighborhoods, multiple stores have opened within a few blocks of one another, selling a mix of nicotine vapes, glassware, and hemp-derived products.
According to city data cited during the enforcement effort, Richmond has identified 97 tobacco or vape retailers operating within city limits. So far, 67 of those businesses have been inspected, with nearly half cited for violations or temporarily shut down until problems are corrected.
During the inspections, authorities say they have uncovered a range of issues including fire safety hazards, zoning violations, and products that appear to exceed the legal THC limits allowed under Virginia law.
City officials argue the campaign is meant to ensure that businesses are operating safely and within the rules.
Business Owners Speak Out
Editor’s note: Yemeni immigrants have played a significant role in the convenience store and small retail industry across the United States for decades, particularly along the East Coast. In cities like Richmond, many Yemeni families have built businesses around corner stores, smoke shops, and small markets, often operating as family-run enterprises. That concentration has also made the community highly visible within Richmond’s vape and convenience store economy.
Several vape and convenience store operators gathered outside Richmond City Hall this week to criticize Operation Vaporize, saying the inspections have led to sudden closures, lost inventory, and mounting financial pressure on small businesses.
Many of the businesses affected are owned by members of Richmond’s Yemeni-American community, which has become deeply involved in the city’s convenience store and vape retail sector over the past few decades.
Community advocates and business owners say the enforcement campaign has disproportionately affected Yemeni-owned stores, raising concerns that the crackdown has unfairly targeted their community.
According to attorney Mark Krudy of The Krudys Law Frim, who represents several of the businesses, some owners believe the inspections have grouped law-abiding retailers together with businesses accused of illegal activity. He has also argued that the multi-agency inspections may have crossed constitutional lines, particularly around how searches and enforcement actions were conducted.
Store owners and their legal representatives say some businesses were closed over what they describe as relatively minor violations, leaving stores unable to operate while owners attempt to resolve the issues and navigate the city’s compliance process.
At the gathering, several business owners described the economic toll of having their stores shut down for extended periods.
For small independent retailers, even short closures can be devastating. Lost sales, spoiled or confiscated inventory, and continued rent payments can quickly add up, especially in an industry where many stores operate on thin margins.
Some owners also said that shuttered stores have become targets for theft while they wait for permission to reopen.
City officials have pushed back on the idea that the enforcement campaign is targeting any specific community, saying inspections are based on compliance checks and complaints rather than ownership.
Still, the dispute has begun to draw attention inside City Hall. Community members have raised concerns during public comment periods at Richmond City Council meetings, and discussions between city officials and members of the Yemeni-American community are expected to continue as the situation unfolds.
For the business owners involved, the immediate concern is whether their stores will be allowed to reopen and what steps will be required to bring them into compliance.
City Pauses Inspections Following Pushback
Following growing criticism from business owners and community advocates, Richmond officials confirmed that proactive inspections tied to Operation Vaporize have been paused for the remainder of March.
City officials said the pause will allow departments to review violations already issued, process permit applications, and give businesses time to address compliance issues identified during earlier inspections.
The enforcement campaign itself has not been canceled. Officials say inspections are expected to resume in April, though it remains unclear whether the program will continue in its current form.
For store owners who have seen their businesses closed or placarded during the inspections, the pause offers only temporary relief as they work to resolve violations and determine when they may be allowed to reopen.
Virginia’s Complicated Vape and Hemp Landscape
The conflict now playing out around Operation Vaporize is also unfolding within a regulatory environment that many retailers say has become increasingly difficult to navigate.
Over the past several years, Virginia lawmakers have repeatedly revised the rules governing hemp-derived products and vape sales, attempting to close loopholes that allowed intoxicating products to be sold outside the state’s regulated cannabis market. Those changes followed the passage of the 2018 federal Farm Bill, which legalized hemp but created a wave of new cannabinoids such as Delta-8, Delta-9, and THCA that quickly filled store shelves across the country.
In Richmond, that shift helped fuel the rapid growth of vape and smoke shops across the city. As previously reported, storefronts selling vapes, glassware, and hemp-derived products began appearing in nearly every corridor, often taking over spaces once occupied by traditional corner stores.
For some retailers, the boom created new economic opportunities. For others, it produced a confusing patchwork of regulations that changed year to year as lawmakers attempted to keep pace with a fast-moving industry.
Several shop owners and hemp producers interviewed by RVA Magazine last year said they were already struggling to keep up with evolving rules around product testing, labeling, and THC limits. Those requirements are enforced at the state level through agencies such as the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees hemp-derived products.
Retailers who attempt to follow the regulations say the system can feel uneven, particularly when competing stores appear to sell products that fall into legal gray areas.
That broader uncertainty forms the backdrop for Richmond’s current enforcement campaign.
For city officials, Operation Vaporize is intended to ensure local businesses comply with zoning, safety, and licensing rules. For some shop owners, however, the crackdown has intensified concerns that enforcement is happening faster than businesses can adapt to the evolving regulatory landscape.
Where Virginia’s Cannabis Legislation Stands
The enforcement fight over vape and hemp products is unfolding as Virginia continues to struggle to finalize a legal retail cannabis market.
Possession of small amounts of marijuana has been legal in Virginia since 2021, and adults can grow a limited number of plants at home. But the state has still not created a fully regulated retail system for legal cannabis sales, leaving a large gray market that includes hemp-derived products often sold in vape and smoke shops.
During the current legislative session, lawmakers again attempted to move that process forward through two major bills: House Bill 642 and Senate Bill 542, which would establish a regulated adult-use cannabis market in Virginia. Both measures have now passed their respective chambers of the General Assembly, though differences between the two versions still need to be resolved before a final bill can move forward.
The proposals would allow licensed cannabis sales to adults 21 and older while creating a tax structure and regulatory system overseen by the state’s cannabis authority. The House version would allow retail sales to begin as early as November 2026, while the Senate version sets a start date of January 2027.
But the legislation has also sparked controversy.
As RVA Magazine previously reported, early committee amendments added new penalties for certain unlicensed cannabis activity, drawing criticism from advocates who said the changes could reintroduce criminal consequences tied to marijuana enforcement. The provisions were later removed before the final bills advanced.
But the amendments exposed divisions among lawmakers over how aggressively the state should police the gray market while a regulated industry is still being built. Some legislators argued stronger penalties were necessary to encourage businesses to transition into the legal system, while others warned that criminalizing unlicensed sales could disproportionately affect communities already impacted by past marijuana enforcement.
For now, the legislation remains in the hands of lawmakers as the House and Senate work to reconcile differences between their versions of the bills before final passage.
Until a retail framework is approved and implemented, Virginia remains in an unusual position: marijuana possession is legal, but regulated retail sales still do not exist.That gap has helped fuel the rise of hemp-derived cannabis products sold in vape and smoke shops across the state, many of which now sit at the center of Richmond’s current enforcement debate.
Photo by R. Anthony Harris
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