What’s at stake?
A new law that will reduce the number of smoke shops in the city beat a legal challenge in court last month. If the law continues to go unchallenged, the city will use a lottery system to determine which businesses close and which get to remain open in 2027.
A city ordinance passed earlier this year that will strongly limit the amount of smoke shops in Fresno by 2027 cleared a legal hurdle, and local leaders doubled down against the businesses.
Fresno city leaders held a news conference on Wednesday morning to champion both the legal challenge’s dismissal from court, and to share updates on their goal to crack down on smoke shops illegally operating in the city.
The legal challenge to the ordinance, filed by the California Smoke Shops Association in May, faced a major setback when U.S. District Court Judge Kirk E. Sheriff denied their request to throw out the new law. The City of Fresno and the Association settled out of court last month, dismissing the lawsuit.
Fresno City Council Vice President Miguel Arias said the primary purpose of the ordinance is to ensure “the public health and safety of the city.” He, alongside Councilmember Nelson Esparza and City Attorney Andrew Janz, said they believe their enforcement is doing just that.
“We remain steadfast on that principle, irrespective of the claims that were being made by some of these operators that were calling themselves ‘good actors,’” Arias said.
But that doesn’t mean the fight is over. An attorney representing the business owners appeared to leave the door open to future litigation.
“CSSA reached an agreement with the City of Fresno to dismiss the current litigation in a way that preserves CSSA’s ability to re-file it, and with each side paying its own attorneys’ fees and costs,” said Shane Smith, attorney for the California Smoke Shop Association, in a statement over email. “In so doing, CSSA made the responsible move to conserve its own and the City’s resources. CSSA looks forward to supporting its individual members in future cases for compensation should their businesses be lost to the City’s Ordinance.”
It was back in April when the Fresno City Council passed the ordinance, which requires a new permitting process for business owners who want to sell tobacco products. The most severe change, however — and the one that brought on legal scrutiny — restricts the number of smoke shops in the city to just 49, or seven per council district.
The city, which already has more than 49 smoke shops, said they decide which businesses get to remain open in 2027 via a lottery system.
Esparza, who said his district contains “the highest concentration of smoke shops in the entire city,” believed the judge’s ruling confirms that the city is “on the right side of the issue.”
“For too long, smoke shops have proliferated through Fresno and wreaked havoc on our neighborhoods,” Esparza said.
The central Fresno councilmember later added, “Our residents deserve to live in communities that prioritize their well being.”
The new laws, which only barely squeaked through the approval process following the addition of a new councilmember, were put under intense scrutiny by members of the dais and the public.
Among the criticisms were arguments that the city would spend too much money going after smoke shop owners. Arias pushed back on those criticisms on Wednesday, saying that the city only spent $1,000 on legal fees in this case.
He added that the city’s ordinance and law enforcement teams have uncovered “disturbing” legal violations during their smoke shop inspections. One smoke shop, on 4205 North Blackstone Ave, had a 16-year-old child working the shop on a school day.
“It scares me that some of these quote unquote ‘good actors’ have gone from selling illegal products to minors to now employing and utilizing minors to push illegal products into the public,” Arias said.
Fresnoland asked Janz if the city could provide more information on the citations issued to the smoke shop.
“All I can say is the owner of that shop is under investigation,” Janz shared over text.
Cali Smoke Shop 3, the business under that street address, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The city said that 26 smoke shops have been shut down following inspections.
Janz said the city found that 85% of smoke shops are within 400 feet of a school.
“What we see in…many of the smoke shops is a deliberate targeting, what I believe, of children by making these products appealing to them,” Janz said. “They are trying to hook an entire new generation of tobacco and cannabis users….no question.”
City leaders also added that they are within their right to pursue actions against public health threats, just as others across the state have done in the past.
It was announced on Wednesday that San Francisco is pursuing legal action against “junk food” companies, arguing that they are responsible for public health crises.
City leaders said it was too hard to pinpoint an exact number of smoke shops the city has as not all of them operate with a valid license. They said it was “in the hundreds.”
Arias said he wasn’t worried about an abrupt influx of abandoned buildings that would likely come with the shuttering of dozens of businesses.
“Every neighborhood in Fresno,” he said, “would rather have an empty building than a drug house in their neighborhood.”
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