Well, it's always good to see new businesses coming into a small town, and Kenyon has just become home to a new vape shop. More than just your common "smoke shop", this store carries all kinds of fun stuff! There are scented candles and many varieties of incense, backpacks, pipes and more. Many brands of cigarettes and cigars, chewing tobacco and the new style of smoking, vape pens. You will find drinks with relaxing or pain killing CBD and CBN, in combination with the legal limit of THC. What do all these letters mean? Come in and see for yourself all the new products, and ask your questions. The clerks are ready to answer your questions and refer you to products that may help you with whatever ails you!
When I moved to Colorado in 2009, it had just become one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana. Doctors were giving classes on how to properly use it, and you had to have a license from a doctor to be able to purchase it in any of the legal forms. Cancer, glaucoma, severe pain, and sleepless nights were some of the diagnosis' that would allow you to get a license to purchase it in a dispensary. You had to pay the doctor for the prescription, and the state for a license. In return for doing these things, you could purchase the flower to smoke, oils to use in the vape pens, or candy infused with legal amounts of THC. CBD was mainly for pain, and CBN was used for relaxation and sleep. This was all before recreational marijuana also became legal in several states.
Vape shops, smoke shops and medicinal dispensaries began springing up everywhere. As the state sorted out what could be considered legal, doctors were prescribing marijuana products from flower buds to oils for vaping to edibles such as gummies and chocolates. The area I lived in was Denver, and every other shop became a dispensary, it seemed. As time went along and legislative decisions were being made, the city began charging $100,000.00 for a license to operate a dispensary. The required permit, insurance and utilities to run a store was all of a sudden more money than the eager entrepreneurs were able to sustain, and one by one, the dispensaries closed, leaving only those with disposable income to do business in this respect.
Sixteen years later, in 2025, recreational "cannabis" as well as the medicinal forms are now legal in 24 states, as well as Washington D.C. This seems to signify a growing acceptance of cannabis across nearly half the USA.
I popped into the Vape Shop and looked around to see what was in there. There is so much to see! As I was chatting with Ahmad who was the clerk on duty that day, Joshua Worley, a Kenyon native, came in for a pack of cigarettes. I asked him what he thought of the shop. "How things have changed!" he replied. "I used to come here to rent videos." As he was waiting to check out, he turned back to me and said, "Kenyon has never had anything like this before. I'm 100% behind Barney and others bringing new businesses to town. It's nice to see Kenyon coming alive again. It's great to have a new assortment of things in town. I'm very happy about it, and I hope it all succeeds."
So although the days of renting videos are gone, new things are on the horizon. Stop in and learn about ways to get better sleep, less pain, and pick up some fun trinkets to enjoy at the Vape Shop. The employees are knowledgeable and happy to explain the products they carry. Good luck to them on their new adventure!
