Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

After search warrants were conducted on vape shops across central Alabama on June 23 that included Clanton, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office gave more insight and details into the investigation at a press conference in Montgomery on June 27.

The months long investigation conducted by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), the AG’s office, the 12th and 19th Judicial Circuits and multiple local law enforcement agencies looked into illegal marijuana that was being sold and on display at vape and smoke shops in Clanton, Enterprise, Troy and Wetumpka.

“It was hidden in plain sight in stores,” Shawn Loughridge, ALEA chief investigator, said. “It’s in places we don’t normally do controlled buys.”

The investigation began in February when the 12th Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office received multiple calls about shops selling illegal marijuana labeled as hemp in Enterprise and Troy. District Attorney James Tarbox reached out to the AG’s office for assistance, and as the operation developed, the 19th Judicial Circuit District Attorney ‘s Office over Autauga, Chilton and Elmore Counties was informed on the operation.

“We were briefed and aware of what was going on,” CJ Robinson, 19th Judicial Circuit District Attorney, said. “We helped where we could.”

Chilton County Sheriff John Shearon confirmed on June 24 that both Rhino Smoke Shops at 507 Seventh St. N. and 2023 Seventh St. N. were both part of the search warrants executed the day before. Employees at both of the Rhino Smoke Shops said they were caught off guard by the unexpected search and seizure of their products. Products that were confiscated from the Clanton stores specifically included items labeled as hemp products, CBD flower and pre-rolled products. The store’s cash registers, credit card machines and other items were taken as well, and Loughridge confirmed that during the press conference. Many of the vapes and gummies were left, but those will be deemed illegal after new regulations related to HB445 go into effect on July 1.

“Let’s make it abundantly clear, this is not hemp,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said. “This is marijuana. Despite the labeling, despite what may be represented these are illicit drugs. As opposed to going to a local drug dealer to buy your marijuana, this is going to a storefront. Either way, it’s illegal activity. Let’s make sure that we’re calling it what it is. This is not a seizure of hemp. This is a seizure of illegal marijuana.”

An employee at Rhino Smoke Shop detailed how a shipment of CBD products would arrive at the store for sale with three distinct pieces of paper inside each box — a letter signed by the company sending the shipment stating the product is not marijuana, an inventory of the shipment and an invoice for the shipment.

At the press conference, officials said that early testing on the seized materials and those purchased during controlled buys during the investigation was three to four times the legal limit.

“This operation was a result of a nearly year-long operation and investigation into the sale of plant materials that contained illegal levels of THC products that were being sold over the counter to customers,” Loughridge said. “Current Alabama law states that only hemp products that contain less than .3% of Delta 9 THC are legal.”

Tested items from the two Clanton stores were on display in small plastic tubs behind the label of Lost Jane. Other materials on the table were items in a large, shrink-wrapped bag of plant material that came from California. It was labeled as legal under the 2018 Farm Bill but tested well above the .3% THC allowed.

Two other tables contained plant materials from a store in Wetumpka. There were a number of bags and containers of plant material and rolled cigarettes with the names like ‘Doughlicious’ labeled on them. There were large bags of plant materials with small empty bags to allow the sale of smaller amounts. The labels on the bags contained QR codes, and officials at the press conference said that testing results were far different than what investigators found inside the bags.

The raids came a handful of days before HB445 goes into effect across the state that will heavily regulate hemp products. HB445 will ban smokable hemp, high-potency gummies and synthetically produced forms of THC, including Delta 8 and Delta 10. It also bans online purchases.

Though no arrests have been made yet as of the morning of June 27, Robinson and Tarbox said that the Attorney General’s Office will handle prosecution in the operation. Due to the amount of plant material seized, trafficking marijuana could be amongst the charges brought up along with numerous other charges such as possession of synthetic urine. Loughridge said charges and arrests are being worked on now, and ALEA is still inventorying items and everything is still under investigation.