Same High, Different Rules?

Federal lawsuit and Missouri AG action raise taxpayer questions over Cameron smoke-shop sales

By Sean Shaughnessey
Across the County Line

The question surrounding Cameron’s smoke shops is no longer just what is being sold behind the counter.

It is whether products that allegedly act like marijuana are being sold outside Missouri’s marijuana system — without the taxes, licensing, testing and tracking required of legal dispensaries.

That question is now at the center of a growing dispute involving Vapor Maven, a smoke-shop chain with a Cameron location at 524 N. Walnut St. The store has also operated locally under Smoke Maven signage.

In March, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office listed Vapor Maven in Cameron among 33 businesses that received cease-and-desist letters as part of a statewide action involving intoxicating cannabis products allegedly being sold outside Missouri’s regulated marijuana system.

Now, Vapor Maven MO LLC is also named as a defendant in a federal civil lawsuit brought by licensed Missouri marijuana businesses. The lawsuit alleges certain companies are selling high-THCa products marketed as hemp, while licensed dispensaries are forced to operate under Missouri’s marijuana taxes, fees, testing rules and seed-to-sale tracking system.

The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court. The case is civil, not criminal.

But the public question is simple:

If a product gets the consumer high like marijuana, converts into THC like marijuana and competes against legal dispensaries, why is it not being taxed, tested and tracked like marijuana?

The taxpayer problem

If the allegations in the federal lawsuit are true, this is not just a cannabis story.

It is a taxpayer story.

It is a small-business fairness story.

It is a Cameron and Clinton County story.

Every legitimate business owner in this community understands what it means to pay the piper. You collect sales tax. You pay license fees. You follow inspection rules. You comply with regulations. You pay your help. You pay your insurance. You file your paperwork. You do not get to skip the burdens of doing business simply because the rules are inconvenient.

Think about the local hardware store.

If one hardware store has to collect sales tax, carry insurance, follow safety rules, comply with inspections and pay every fee required to sell regulated products, while another shop down the street sells similar products under a different label and avoids those same burdens, nobody would call that fair competition.

They would call it what it is: one business paying the cost of doing things the right way while another enjoys the benefit of the same market without the same responsibility.

That is the issue raised by the Vapor Maven lawsuit.

Licensed marijuana dispensaries in Missouri pay marijuana-specific taxes. They pay license fees. Their products are tested. Their inventory is tracked. Their packaging is regulated. Their sales are part of the legal marijuana system voters approved.

But the lawsuit alleges some smoke-shop operators are selling high-THCa products that function like marijuana while being marketed as hemp. If that allegation is correct, then those businesses are not just exploiting a legal gray area. They are competing in Cameron’s backyard without carrying the same tax and regulatory burden imposed on the legal marijuana industry.

That should anger taxpayers.

It should anger local business owners.

It should anger anyone who believes the rules should apply evenly.

Cameron and Clinton County do not benefit when businesses operate around the edges of the law while everyone else is expected to play it straight. If marijuana-like products are being sold here, the public has a right to ask whether marijuana taxes are being collected, whether marijuana rules are being followed and whether local officials are willing to enforce the difference.

Because if the product is marijuana when it is used, but hemp when it is taxed, the public is the one getting shortchanged.

The tax question

Licensed Missouri marijuana dispensaries do not operate like ordinary smoke shops.

Medical marijuana sales are subject to a 4% marijuana tax. Adult-use marijuana sales are subject to a 6% marijuana tax. Those marijuana taxes are in addition to ordinary state and local sales taxes. Local governments may also impose an additional adult-use marijuana tax of up to 3%, where approved.

Licensed marijuana operators also pay application, renewal and annual license fees. They are subject to state cannabis regulations, product testing requirements, packaging rules and Missouri’s statewide seed-to-sale tracking system.

Traditional tobacco and vape shops operate under a much lighter framework. Missouri does not require a specific state tobacco retail license. Retailers generally need a Missouri retail sales tax license and any required local license. Tobacco products are subject to Missouri’s tobacco tax structure, but smoke shops are not automatically subject to marijuana excise taxes, cannabis facility licensing fees, marijuana testing rules or seed-to-sale tracking.

That difference is the heart of the dispute.

The lawsuit reviewed by Across the County Line alleges that certain businesses are selling high-THCa products that are marijuana in effect while being marketed as legal hemp. If that allegation is correct, then the issue is not only whether consumers know what they are buying.

It is whether businesses selling intoxicating marijuana-like products are competing against licensed dispensaries while avoiding the taxes and rules Missouri voters placed on the legal marijuana market.

The “THCa Two-Step”

The lawsuit calls the issue “The THCa Two-Step.”

The petition alleges that high-THCa products are marketed as hemp because they may contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight before being heated. But the plaintiffs argue that this does not tell the whole story.

THCa is not the same as delta-9 THC in its raw form. But when THCa is heated, burned or smoked, it can convert into intoxicating delta-9 THC.

The lawsuit quotes product language explaining that “when you heat THCa, it converts to THC, which is what gives you the traditional marijuana high.”

The petition also states that “THCa converts to delta-9 THC when decarboxylated at a rate of 1 to .877.” Using that formula, the lawsuit alleges that 36% THCa flower “contains over 31% delta 9 THC after decarboxylation — over ten times the legal limit on delta 9 THC for hemp.”

That allegation is central to the consumer-protection issue.

A customer may see a product marketed as hemp. But if the product converts into a much stronger intoxicating substance when used as intended, the label may not tell the full story.

That matters to consumers.

It matters to parents.

It matters to schools.

It matters to law enforcement.

And it should matter to taxpayers.

Vapor Maven named in AG action and lawsuit

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office publicly named Vapor Maven in Cameron as part of its March cease-and-desist campaign.

The AG’s office alleged that businesses on the statewide list were selling intoxicating cannabis or marijuana products outside Missouri’s Article XIV framework and in violation of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. The AG also alleged some products contained contaminants, were deceptively marketed or were being sold in a way likely to confuse consumers.

Separately, Vapor Maven MO LLC is one of 16 defendants named in a civil lawsuit brought by licensed Missouri marijuana cultivation, manufacturing and retail businesses.

The case, originally filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The federal docket lists the case as Agri-Genesis, LLC et al. v. Rize Wellness, LLC et al., case number 4:2026cv00400.

A Rule 16 scheduling conference is set for June 30, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. by telephone before Chief District Judge Brian C. Wimes.

That hearing is not a trial. It does not determine guilt, liability or wrongdoing. It is an early case-management step.

But the lawsuit gives the public a clearer view of the dispute: licensed marijuana businesses are alleging that some smoke-shop and hemp-product operators are selling products that should be treated as marijuana, while avoiding the costs and controls imposed on licensed marijuana operators.

Cameron’s local question

Across the County Line has obtained new video showing continued sales activity at Smokers Heaven, another Cameron smoke shop located at 204 S. Walnut St.

Smokers Heaven is not listed as a defendant in the federal lawsuit reviewed by ACL. Public ownership records remain a separate area of review.

But the existence of multiple smoke shops in Cameron selling vape, kratom, THC-A or related products raises a local question officials should not avoid:

Who is checking what is being sold?

Has anyone inspected?

Has anyone asked for product records?

Has anyone checked licensing?

Has anyone contacted the Missouri Attorney General’s Office?

Has anyone contacted the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation?

Has anyone asked whether products sold locally are being taxed, tested and tracked as marijuana — or whether they are being sold under the lighter rules that apply to tobacco and vape shops?

If the answer is yes, the public should be told what has been done.

If the answer is no, the public deserves to know why.

Not just a storefront story

Public records reviewed by ACL show the Vapor Maven name has appeared across multiple business entities and regulatory records.

Federal labor records show Jasleen Enterprises LLC, doing business as Vapor Maven, previously paid back wages and liquidated damages after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation involving multiple Vapor Maven locations.

A 2021 FDA warning letter to Vapor Maven E-Juice LLC, addressed to Hermin Thind, involved e-liquid products allegedly marketed without required authorization under federal tobacco law.

Public records also identify Fresh Leaf LLC d/b/a Vapor Maven, LLC and CannaBlast, LLC in connection with a 2020 Miami, Oklahoma project described as a hemp-processing facility and retail shop.

Those records do not prove products sold in Cameron came from any particular facility. They do show that the Vapor Maven name has appeared in more than one regulatory and business context beyond a single storefront.

But the local issue does not require readers to untangle every business entity.

The core question is simpler:

Are Cameron-area customers buying products that function like marijuana while the businesses selling them operate outside Missouri’s marijuana system?

Where is the public response?

This should not be a quiet issue.

If the Attorney General is right, these products raise consumer-protection and public-safety concerns.

If the lawsuit is right, some businesses may be competing against licensed dispensaries while avoiding the taxes and rules that legal marijuana businesses must follow.

If the businesses are right, and the products are legal hemp, then they should be willing to explain that clearly to the public.

Either way, silence from public officials is not good enough.

Cameron residents deserve to know what is being sold in their community, how those products are regulated, whether taxes are being collected properly and who is responsible for enforcement when the line between hemp and marijuana becomes blurry.

This is not about harassing clerks.

It is not about whether adults should be allowed to buy legal products.

It is about whether Missouri’s laws mean what they say, whether taxpayers are being shortchanged and whether local consumers are being told the truth.

Across the County Line is seeking comment from Vapor Maven MO LLC, Harminder “Hermin” Thind, Smokers Heaven/Cameron Smokers LLC, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, the City of Cameron, county officials and local prosecutors.

Questions include whether the businesses continue to sell THC-A, kratom, 7-OH or similar products; whether they contend those products comply with Missouri law; whether local officials have inspected or reviewed smoke-shop product sales; and whether any local or state enforcement activity has occurred since the Attorney General’s March cease-and-desist announcement.

This story will be updated as additional records and responses are received.