Myrtle Beach City Council voted this week to ban smoke shops from Ocean Boulevard between 6th Avenue South and 16th Avenue North, including:

• Smoke shops;
• CBD oil;
• Sexually explicit items;
• Cannabis products;
• Vape products; and
• E-cigarettes.

Myrtle Beach has struggled for decades to create a “family friendly” environment – an effort at times has been successful, but that has often fallen short as national media reports on violence and murders in the Grand Strand area.

Will Banning Smoke Shops Help to Improve Myrtle Beach’s Image?

During Tuesday’s council meeting, some examples were provided of “items purchased… from downtown stores, including a T-shirt saying, ‘It’s only illegal if you get caught,’ CBD oil, edibles and synthetic marijuana.”

• The T-shirt is speech, protected by the First Amendment.
• The CBD oil is harmless, does not get people high, and CBD is legal in SC.
• Synthetic marijuana is absolutely illegal and is already banned – if police find synthetic marijuana in a smoke shop, they should already be making arrests and working to keep it out of stores.

Smoke Shops and CBD Oil are Family Friendly

Whether you care if people vape instead of smoking cigarettes or whether you care if a person uses CBD oil is a matter of opinion and personal preference – if you vape or use CBD oil you probably feel like it is family friendly. What’s not family friendly? Drug trafficking, illicit drug sales and prostitution on the boulevard, and violent crime… none of which are caused by or related to vaping or CBD oil.

Are We Keeping the Community Safe or Just Imposing Our Morals on the Community?

I would love to be able to say Myrtle Beach is a family-friendly vacation spot, and we absolutely need to continue working towards that goal – does a smoke shop ban or CBD oil ban really accomplish that, though? For the most part, nice people with families don’t mind walking by a smoke shop. Some nice people with families will stop, browse, and spend their money in a smoke shop. What nice people with families don’t want is for someone to be murdered on the street as they walk by with their children. They don’t want to see drug deals on a corner as they walk by with their children. They don’t want to worry that they or their children may be robbed or murdered on their family vacation. None of which is caused by or related to smoke shops or CBD oil…

Criminal Defense and CBD Oil Attorneys in Myrtle Beach, SC

If you have been charged with a crime on Ocean Boulevard, or if you are a business owner who needs help understanding the laws and regulations for CBD oil products in South Carolina, call Coastal Law now at (843) 488-5000 or send us a message to talk with a business attorney or criminal defense attorney in Myrtle Beach.