Baltimore tightens smoke shop rules near schools and parks

Brandon Scott has put a new zoning wall around Baltimore’s smoke shops, banning new storefronts from opening within 750 feet of schools, parks, recreation centers or other smoke shops. The rule is aimed less at one store than at whole stretches of neighborhood retail, where residents and officials say clusters of smoke shops have become part of the daily landscape.

The change, signed June 16, is meant to hit the blocks where families actually live, walk and wait for the bus: the corridors around Baltimore City schools, the edges of city parks and the blocks near recreation centers. It also means fewer new shops can stack up on the same commercial strip, where one smoke shop often follows another. Existing stores that do not meet the new zoning standard have two years to close, so the street-level impact will unfold gradually rather than overnight.

City officials have framed the measure as a public-safety and quality-of-life tool, not just a licensing tweak. Council President Zeke Cohen said the city is pro-business, but argued neighborhoods should not have to tolerate stores selling harmful products to children and residents. Councilmember Tony Glover said children in his community are getting products from smoke shops, a complaint that has helped turn the issue into a fight over youth exposure and neighborhood stability.

The zoning change follows a broader crackdown that has already produced major seizures. On June 5, the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office and the Maryland Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Commission announced an enforcement initiative targeting illegal cannabis and tobacco sales inside smoke shops. Over a two-week period, officials said they seized more than 73 pounds of illegal cannabis products and nearly 18,000 untaxed tobacco products.

Baltimore’s new rules also grow out of a legislative package introduced in October 2025. That proposal defined a smoke shop as a retail business that devotes at least 10% of its floor area to tobacco products, vaping devices or cannabis-related paraphernalia, and it would have barred shops within 500 feet of schools, parks, recreation centers and 1,500 feet of another smoke shop. The final version signed by Scott uses the 750-foot separation standard instead.

The city says it has about 1,200 smoke shops, and lawmakers say the new standards could cut that number roughly in half. That could mean fewer future storefronts near Baltimore City schools and parks, but it will not erase the businesses already in place. For now, the clearest change is where new shops will no longer be allowed to open, and which commercial corridors will still have room for them.