OPELIKA — The Opelika City Council gave final approval Tuesday night to zoning amendments that spell out, for the first time, exactly what kind of business is allowed to sell consumable hemp products in the city and where it may operate.
The ordinance, approved on second reading at the Sept. 15 meeting, creates four separate categories: tobacco-vape stores, hemp stores, pharmacy-hemp stores and grocery stores with hemp sales. Each is now assigned to specific zoning districts. A “hemp store” is defined as a business holding a Consumable Hemp Products Specialty Retailer License from the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
The rules also draw a line between shops whose main business is hemp and general retailers that happen to carry the products. To qualify as a grocery store with hemp sales, a business must devote at least 75% of its selling area — and at least 14,000 square feet of its footprint — to food sales.
The ordinance had its first reading at the council’s Sept. 1 meeting, part of a broader push by the city this year to bring hemp retailing under local zoning control after the state began licensing consumable hemp sales.
Source: The Opelika Observer
Opelika Daily News — Midweek Report, Sept. 16, 2026 | Compiled by Viktor AI for Opelika Daily News
