‘Free joints’ Fairborn smoke shop boarded up by city; owners plan to sue

Raid came days before DeWine signed bill into law banning intoxicating hemp
Bud City Dispo, a smoke shop located on Broad Street in Fairborn, was boarded up by Fairborn police a few days before Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill on Dec. 19 that bans intoxicating hemp products. Stores the business operates in Chillicothe and Waverly were raided the same day Fairborn police conducted its raid. BRYANT BILLING/STAFF

Bud City Dispo, a smoke shop located on Broad Street in Fairborn, was boarded up by Fairborn police a few days before Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill on Dec. 19 that bans intoxicating hemp products. Stores the business operates in Chillicothe and Waverly were raided the same day Fairborn police conducted its raid. BRYANT BILLING/STAFF

A Fairborn smoke shop that made headlines for offering its customers free “joints” of intoxicating hemp over the summer was shut down by police for alleged violations of city nuisance code.

The action came days before Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill into law banning the sale of intoxicating hemp in in Ohio outside of state-licensed dispensaries. That ban goes into effect 90 days after the bill’s signing this month.

Bud City Dispo, located on Broad Street in Fairborn, was boarded up by Fairborn police late last week.

Fairborn police confirmed in a statement that they had issued a formal nuisance abatement notice to Bud City on November 18. As part of the notice, Bud City was given a 15-day period to appeal the nuisance ruling, police said.

“The police department did not receive an appeal within the required timeframe. As a result, the nuisance abatement action proceeded as authorized. This remains an active investigation,” police said in a statement.

The city has not provided the Dayton Daily News with records or information about what nuisance ordinance the business is accused of violating.

Owners Jesse Burns and Julian Stokien said they tried to appeal the nuisance ruling within the time limit, adding that they plan to sue to reopen their business.

“There’s plenty of other businesses that operate in the same compliance that we do. They’re not going through the issues that we are,” said Burns.

Stokien and Burns said their other two locations, one in Waverly and the other in Chillicothe, were raided on the same day.

Bud City Dispo, which is located on Broad Street in Fairborn, was boarded up by Fairborn police late last week. The smoke shop offered hemp products. Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill on Dec. 19 that bans intoxicating hemp. BRYANT BILLING/STAFF

Credit: Bryant Billing

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Credit: Bryant Billing

The raid came just days prior to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signing a bill into law banning intoxicating hemp products outside of licensed dispensaries.

Ohio Senate Bill 56 will take effect in just under 90 days, and makes a myriad of changes to the state’s voter-passed marijuana law, including making it illegal to bring legally purchased marijuana from another state back to Ohio, and reducing maximum THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts, and banning smoking in most public places. The bill also creates a path to expungement for low-level marijuana convictions.

DeWine and other Republican lawmakers have long aimed to close a loophole created by the federal 2018 farm bill that legalized the production of hemp plants — marijuana’s low-THC cousin. Ever since, federal and state laws have technically allowed intoxicating hemp to be sold without testing or restrictions on who can buy it, or who it can be marketed to.

Earlier versions of Senate Bill 56 floated a plan to create an intoxicating hemp retail license to essentially mirror Ohio’s recreational marijuana market, but those state-level talks were shut down once Congress voted to make intoxicating hemp products illegal beginning in November 2026. Ohio’s new law will functionally regulate the same products before the federal ban kicks in.

The owners of Bud City have previously drawn a distinction between their product and “harmful” hemp derivatives like delta-8. Burns and Stokien previously told the Dayton Daily News they were in favor of regulations, “as long as shops like us have a fair shot.”

Stokien said Tuesday that the passed version of Senate Bill 56 effectively shuts the door on “a legal pathway to regulate our industry,” echoing icy criticisms from the broader hemp industry about the effect the ban will have on small businesses.

“That bill didn’t just try to eradicate our industry,” he said. “It turned back what voters actually did vote for, the rights to grow cannabis or marijuana plants … how they can transport their own property. It turns back everything and it makes it just a corporate monopoly.”

Bud City Dispo, a hemp shop located on Broad Street in Fairborn, was boarded up by Fairborn police last week, a few days before Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill on Dec. 19 that bans intoxicating hemp products. BRYANT BILLING/STAFF

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