OAKWOOD — An area police task force said there is a lack of control over vape shop products.
The Tactical Crime Suppression Unit looked at four local vape shops.
John Davis is a spokesperson for TCSU.
“It doesn’t appear like there are a lot of controls,” Davis said.
He was referring to what seems like relaxed product safeguards for THC products. It could also apply to state oversight of THC products on store shelves.
Some of that may be because THC products are a new and developing industry.
State lawmakers approved medical marijuana use in 2014, strictly controlled at dispensaries.
In 2018, federal lawmakers approved hemp-based CBD products.
Ohio lawmakers legalized it in Ohio in 2019, but what is being sold in shops doesn’t seem uniform.
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TCSU served search warrants at four shops on April 10 and their early testing of products they seized shows confusing results.
“Someone is buying something thinking they are getting this much THC and they’re getting zero, others are off the charts,” Davis said.
Davis said that could explain the illnesses and overdoses that prompted their investigation.
Deborah Watson took a product for pain related that she told was delta-9.
Wilson shared medical records with News Center 7 that showed it put her in the hospital with hallucinations.
“Don’t ever take something that you don’t know exactly what it is,” Watson said.
Delta-9 products may be the most controversial and confusing THC products on the market in Ohio.
The Ohio Department of Commerce, one of three agencies with oversight of THC products in Ohio, states that delta-9 products are legal if their concentration is less than .3 percent.
TCSU said their agents have been sold delta-9.
TCSU said no one at any stores has been accused of illegal activity yet.
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