08/28/2026
Where are kids really getting ni****ne?
At Parkway V***r, we card everyone. If you look under 30, we check ID. Every time. No exceptions.
We see fewer than six underage kids even try to buy a v**e in an entire year. They get turned away. That’s how a shop that follows the law actually operates.
And yet kids still end up with these devices. That’s the part nobody wants to talk about honestly.
Research keeps showing the same thing: most underage users don’t walk into a licensed v**e shop, get carded, and walk out with a device. They get them from friends. Older siblings. Someone 21 who buys for them. Snapchat. Instagram. TikTok. A convenience store or gas station that doesn’t bother checking ID. Online sellers with weak or fake age checks. Sometimes even family members.
Social supply is the main pipeline. Licensed shops that follow To***co 21 are not.
Here’s the part that should make people angry:
The shops that check IDs, keep records, refuse sales, and stay compliant keep getting targeted. Extra inspections. Headlines. New rules written as if we are the problem. Some good shops get squeezed out of business for doing exactly what the law asks.
Meanwhile, the stores that skip the ID check, sell whatever is cheapest, and look the other way keep thriving.
That is not protecting kids. That is punishing the businesses that already said no.
If the goal is keeping ni****ne out of kids’ hands, go after the real sources:
Proxy buyers and social media resellers
Retailers that don’t card
Unregulated online and informal sales
Don’t keep hammering the shops that already turn kids away.
Kids should not have these products. We agree. We prove it at the counter every day.
If you want to keep youth away from ni****ne, support the stores that actually follow the law — and hold the ones that don’t accountable.
Parkway V***r
Bristol, TN
We check ID. Every time.