Iowa City considers stricter regulations for smoke shops

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa City officials want to restrict the sale of tobacco products within city limits.

The process of changing the regulations began in May, when the city suspended issuing new tobacco licenses until next year. At the time, the city manager said officials would use the pause to closely examine what these stores sell and whether there are any safety concerns.

City council members are currently considering three possible changes to the way tobacco licenses work.

The first option would be to limit the number of permits issued within city limits. City Council member Andrew Dunn said Saturday that officials agreed to a cap of 55 permits during a recent work session. Currently, the city has issued 62 permits, but Dunn said anyone who has permits now would be grandfathered in.

The second proposed change is to require smoke shops to be at least 150 metres away from places such as schools and parks.

The third proposed change would be a ban on the sale of the herbal ingredient kratom.

“Our proposal is to simply ban sales. We are not criminalizing consumption,” Dunn said.

He added: “We’re definitely not criminalizing possession. That’s not happening. But until there’s a well-tested regulatory system, which a bunch of Iowa City officials can’t put together, we don’t seem comfortable with (kratom) being sold in our community at this time.”

Farhan Ahmed owns five tobacco shops, two of them in Iowa City, and he has no objection to limiting the number of permits issued by the city.

“Today there is a store on every corner and that is obviously not good for individual business owners,” he said.

However, he was not enthusiastic about a ban on the sale of Kratom.

“We had to get rid of a lot of our CBD and stuff. And now Iowa City is trying to get rid of kratom. So they’re trying to get rid of every single item one by one, and that’s kind of not fair,” Ahmed said.

Dunn said council members had developed proposals for these distancing requirements and a permit cap at a recent work session, but that there had not yet been any in-depth discussion about a kratom ban.

Dunn said that all measures taken at the local level are only about keeping people, especially children, safe.

“Everyone has the right to make their own personal decisions, that’s absolutely right. But we want to make sure that the risks are mitigated and people are informed about those risks,” Dunn said.

Dunn added that residents would not hear about a first reading of any changes to the city ordinance until September at the earliest.

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