Kansas shuts down ‘roll your own’ cigarette shops

• Duke Machine
• Kansas smokers can’t go out and roll their own right now.

In a move characterized as a fire-safety issue, the Kansas Department of Revenue shut down around 20 operations that offer the use of “roll your own cigarette” machines to customers, according to a KMBC Channel 9 news report.

Among the stores shuttered were a pair of Lawrence smoke shops – UCF Half Price Smokes – as state regulators pointed to concerns that the rolling papers used by the machine don’t meet fire-safety standards. And while roll-your-own users don’t have to pay the state’s tax of 79 cents per pack (the locations characterize the transaction as a purchase of materials and rental of the machine rather than a purchase of cigarettes), the state insists that this is a decision based on safety rather than revenue.