A smoke shop in eastern Kentucky has been selling high school and middle school students vapes that have hospitalized multiple children, according to police.
“Recently, Prestonsburg/Floyd County ECC began receiving calls of students at Prestonsburg High School demonstrating overdose-like symptoms and requiring medical attention and transport to the hospital,” the Prestonsburg Police Department said. “There were five of these occurrences in one week alone.”
The police department said: “The common factor in every case was that the minor student had been using electronic vapes and other products labeled as being compliant with state and federal law, but the medical emergencies and the fact that minors were in possession of these materials at an alarming rate indicated there was a problematic situation.”
Police then set up a sting operation with the help of “minors with parental consent in conducting controlled buys in area stores.”
One of the stores, Quick Stop Smoke Shop Discount Tobacco and Vaping, located within 1,000 feet of Prestonsburg High School, repeatedly sold to minors. The transactions, police said, were captured on surveillance video.
Samples of the vapes obtained were sent to a lab for testing and it was determined that none of the products being sold were appropriately labeled, and, according to police, were in some cases “rogue” products that “contained levels of more than 90 percent active impairing ingredients,” which resulted in several overdoses.
“In short, the tobacco store was selling products of questionable origin to high school and junior high students that couldn’t possibly know what they were purchasing because the products were completely mislabeled, in violation of federal law, and when those products were used they caused substantial medical emergencies,” the Prestonsburg PD said.
Following consultation with the FDA, Prestonsburg police executed a search warrant at the store and “seized a large quantity of mislabeled, misbranded and questionable products that were sending our children into medical emergencies …”
No arrests have yet been made.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
