Attorney General Jay Jones recently announced a new Regulated Products Enforcement Unit to help combat illegal vape sales in Virginia. And this week, he stopped in Henrico County to hear what more his office and elected officials could do to address youth vaping.
The roundtable at the Varina Area Library included Henrico police, educators, prosecutors and elected officials. As a Senator and high school civics teacher, Schuyler VanValkenburg fit into two of those categories.
“I mean, the stories about what kids do, they sit on the floor in the bathroom at lunch and vape; it’s crazy, the stories," VanValkenburg told the AG. "And it's really hard for administrators and teachers to get a handle on that. I think the answer is going to the source: closing down the illegal shops that are everywhere.”
One idea to address the problem came from Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Feinmel: going after the owners of illegal shops like they did famous gangsters:
“When I looked at the new laws that were passed, what excited me the most were the record keeping requirements and the Class 2 misdemeanors that were created there," Feinmel said. "And I’ve used this conversation many times; this gives us an opportunity to Al Capone bad operators."
Kristin Jimison is with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and has kids in Henrico Public Schools. She said working with local folks to find the bad actors is a good place to start.
“And they're not always vape shops — they sometimes are convenience stores, corner stores," Jimison said. "And so, Kentucky is working on giving communities a mechanism to, I don’t want to say report, but let the folks doing the enforcement know there’s a store that is a repeat offender because the kids know where to go.”
For Attorney General Jay Jones, it was an opportunity to listen ahead of the 2027 legislative session, where he can make recommendations for new laws.
“We heard there are ever evolving threats. These issues are constantly changing," Jones said. "And so, one bill in 2026 is not going to be able to solve this issue for forever.”
