Last week, Warren County joined the list of counties in Pennsylvania to seize illegal marijuana products being sold at vape shops.

Authorities confiscated vape products, edible items, and 5 pounds of marijuana totaling an estimated value exceeding $150,000 in retail value from shops in the city of Warren as well as in Conewango Township. The seizures were conducted as part of an ongoing investigation into the unlawful sale and distribution of controlled substances, stemming from complaints from local schools and students in possession of THC products.

This is an issue that needs to be on the radar of state lawmakers as well as Gov. Josh Shapiro – because it isn’t limited to Warren County or other areas near states that allow legal marijuana sales. A 100-page, 10-month grand jury investigation alleged smoke shops across Montgomery County were selling unsafe and illegal marijuana and THC products, including to children, was released in late 2025. While it is legal in Pennsylvania to sell authorized hemp products containing a maximum of 0.3 percent of Delta-9 THC, the hallucinogenic in marijuana that makes users high, the Montgomery County investigation found the legal hemp classification has been widely manipulated and abused by distributors who have marketed their high-potency marijuana products as being hemp-derived or legally compliant. In January, authorities uncovered a large-scale illegal marijuana sales operation at two vape shops in Allegheny County in January. In February, a pair of Lycoming County business owners were charged with using their vape shops to sell illegal marijuana products. The Potter County District Attorney’s Office executed search warrants on two Coudersport vape shops in November that resulted in the seizure of illegal items.

There are two possible solutions that we can see. The first is to legalize the sale of marijuana and marijuana products, which would create additional revenue for the state and lessen some of the confusion over what products are legal and what products are not. There are downsides to legalization, and it’s far from the cure-all that legalization advocates say that it is.

The other option is to increase enforcement of existing law so that vape shop owners aren’t emboldened to sell products state government isn’t ready to make legal. That, in our opinion, would include both increased penalties for businesses that flout the law and increased enforcement actions like the ones we saw last week in Warren County.

Either option requires the state to take the lead in telling local officials which path they should take.