Three Kansas small business owners are fighting back after state law enforcement agents raided their smoke and vape shops in October 2025.
The owners filed a lawsuit against state Attorney General Kris Kobach and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, alleging violations of their constitutional rights.
The plaintiffs allege that state law enforcement conducted illegal searches and seizures based on defective warrants after conducting raids across eight Kansas cities, including Wichita, Topeka, Salina, McPherson, Pratt, Concordia, Independence, and Abilene.
Kobach and other state officials announced the raids as part of a statewide crackdown on what they called lax enforcement of state marijuana and THC laws, according to The Lawrence Times.
The lawsuit claims officers seized hemp-derived products without distinctions in the warrants between legal and illegal hemp products under Kansas law.
The smoke and vape shops say the warrants were defective for not acknowledging that types of hemp-derived products are legal within Kansas, with the warrant for Indy Vapes in Independence stating all derivatives of THC are contraband.
The Kansas Controlled Substance Act says industrial hemp and hemp-derived products are legal and are not controlled substances if they have less than a 0.3% concentration of THC. The plaintiffs say they sell legal hemp products and purchase those products from established wholesalers.
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Indy Vapes v Kobach:
— Jerad Najvar (@NajvarLaw) March 5, 2026
We've filed a lawsuit against Kansas officials for an indiscriminate search and seizure of hemp-derived products. The KBI's shock and awe raids in October 2025 were overbearing intimidation, not reasoned law enforcement. (1/x)https://t.co/OuAd1ck3NK
The business owners allege that officers ordered employees not to film the raids while covering windows from the inside and unplugging in-store internet and security cameras. The raids were “facially illegal under the Fourth Amendment,” the lawsuit states, also noting that “Kansas authorities apparently don’t even pay attention to what the statutes actually say.”
The KBI denied any wrongdoing. "The lawsuit is a tactic to distract from the fact that Indy Vapes and Abilene Vape and CBD made a business decision to ignore state law, and now want to blame law enforcement for what they knew was a likely consequence. We will defend our responsibility to enforce the laws of Kansas,” the agency said in a statement.
Hemp-derived THC products were made legal in the 2018 Farm Bill.
This dispute comes amid a national debate over hemp-derived THC products. President Donald Trump, in November, signed a federal spending bill that redefined hemp to cap products at just 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, which would eliminate about 95 percent of hemp-derived products currently on the market. It would also threaten 300,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in state tax revenue when it takes effect in November 2026.
Congress is currently considering several measures, including the American Hemp Protection Act, which would repeal the new restriction. The Cannabinoid Safety and Regulation Act would establish a federal regulatory framework.
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