The Hattiesburg Planning Commission on Wednesday denied a request for variance that would have allowed Wik Strom, owner of Paradigm CBD Shoppe, to operate a wholesale CBD operation near the Hattiesburg Zoo in the Kamper Avenues area.
Strom’s original Paradigm CBD Shoppe located on U.S. 98 sells vapes and other CBD items. CBD is a chemical found in marijuana, but according to the Mayo Clinic “doesn’t contain tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana that produces a high.”
Strom had said he wanted to use the 15,000 square-foot building to expand his business into wholesale, a move that would require city approval.
However, other local shop owners objected to the request.
One of the neighboring shop owners objecting to the proposal is James Moore, owner of Moore’s Bicycle Shop, who is opposed to the sale of drug paraphernalia, which despite a local ordinance allowing the sale of drug paraphernalia, he said he believes is prohibited by state law.
“Following the death of our son, Jeffrey, in 2015 to a drug overdose, I began petitioning the city of Hattiesburg to enforce the decades-old state paraphernalia laws,” Moore said via Facebook. “The law is clear, a retailer may not sell items intended to inhale, ingest, or inject prohibited substances into the human body: period, with no exceptions.
“The problem with allowing merchants to break the law is that in doing so we undermine the voices of parents, educators, pastors, and those in the medical…