South Carolina has aggressively policed local smoke shops since hemp was legalized and smokable hemp flower markets exploded in 2019. Five men were arrested in Greenville, South Carolina in early February, and charged with criminal conspiracy and trafficking marijuana.

All were operating shops selling hemp-derived delta-8 THC and delta-9 THC, contained in the typical mix of vape and edible products. “They took all the money, they even took me and my brother’s personal cellphones,” Ibrahim Abdo Ahmed Abdulla, owner of Smokey and Greenville Tobacco and Vape, told The Post and Courier. “It hurts my business.”

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