Local smoke shops close due to new tax

Yahoo

23-03-2025

AMES, Iowa — Almost ten years to the day Brandon Long opened High Class Glass in Ames, he permanently closed his smoke shop as a result of new legislation.
On January 1st of this year, Senate File 345 took effect. The law was quietly passed at the end of the 2024 legislative session and imposed a 40% tax on glass or metal smoking devices, like bongs. Additionally, the law required smoke shops to pay a $1,500 sales permit yearly.
As a result, Long closed High Class Glass on December 31, 2024, just one day shy of his businesses' tenth anniversary.
'I have painted a lot of murals and artwork and there were things that I hadn't moved in years and now they're gone,' said Long. 'Seeing it like this, so dusty and not taken care of [and] just waiting for the next tenant to come, it was definitely heartbreaking for sure. You spend ten years in a place and you're going to get attached to it.'
His smoke shop once sold local blown glass, but the new law was the businesses' death blow. Long's colorful signs and lights were replaced by one piece of white printer paper on the door reading, 'Location permanently closed. Thank you for the years of wonderful support.'
Also under the new law, business owners are also required to keep a record of devices sold for five years and they have to shield anyone under the age of twenty-one from seeing these devices. For example, shops either had to remove these devices from windowsills or cover their windows so they're not visible.
'They really, really, really made it hard to operate,' the former owner said.
Long's leftover inventory is being sold to House of Glass, a smoke shop on Fleur Drive in Des Moines. The owner, Rachel Gulick, said if they didn't own the building that the shop is located in, they would have likely closed their doors, too.
While Gulick's shop can remain open, they are still seeing the effects of the law. The owner had to let go of two employees and take them themselves off of payroll to be able to provide for the two staffers they have left.
Gulick also said another well-known smoke shop in the Drake neighborhood, Groovy Goods, also had to close its doors for similar reasons. The shop had been open for three decades.
According to a Facebook post by Groovy Goods, the shop closed 'due to the government and a landlord.'
'There's this saying in the business world that if you can make it five years, you're going to make it. Well, if you've made it 30 years and now can't make it because of swift action and taxes levied by the state, who can? And I don't think that's a great look for Iowa's business community,' said Gulick.
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