Hippie Town dispensary battles with residents, Pittsburgh officials over product legality
Christopher Younger lacked a suit, a tie and a law degree as he strode into Pittsburgh Municipal Court, preparing to represent himself against charges that he illegally sold marijuana at his Pittsburgh vape shops.
The 42-year-old Hippie Town store owner sported a white T-shirt and blue sweatpants, his white socks peeking out above low-top black sneakers. On one ankle, Younger wore a black electronic monitoring device — a condition in one of several ongoing criminal court cases. He lugged a large satchel overflowing with his handwritten notes about Pennsylvania and federal law.
During a hearing that stretched three hours, the Wilkinsburg man — sometimes laughing, sometimes shouting — verbally dueled with a prosecutor and District Judge Xander Orenstein.
When Younger raised his voice — “You don’t have jurisdiction right now!” he repeatedly shouted at Orenstein — sheriff’s deputies flanked him.
Younger argued that the type of cannabis he sells at his shops Downtown and on Pittsburgh’s North Side is legal. Pittsburgh police say crime lab tests prove otherwise.
THC-A, which Younger said he sells through Hippie Town, does not have mind-altering qualities when consumed in an unprocessed form, according to the Hanley Center, a Florida group that treats substance abuse and addiction.
It becomes a psychoactive chemical, however, when heated, smoked or vaped.
That May 20 court appearance Downtown was emblematic of a battle being waged by Younger, a voluble businessman whose enterprise sits in the crosshairs of police, prosecutors and neighborhood groups — all of whom are trying to shut him down.
Orenstein sometimes shouted back. The judge gave Younger roughly a dozen final warnings, then told the deputies to throw him out of the courtroom.
“They came in here thinking I was stupid,” Younger said. “They’re trying to use some flimflam against me — they can’t do that. … They didn’t understand how smart I am with this. I’m looking at the same books they are!”
Younger, a felon with a prison record, said he plans to take his case to Superior Court. In city court, he dissected the minutiae of state codes and cited case law in a vocal defense.
“I just beat you, I just beat you,” Younger shouted as deputies escorted him out of Courtroom No. 2. “This is over!”
Hippie Town stores
Younger’s budding business, which includes at least three Hippie Town locations in Pittsburgh and one in Indiana County, have attracted attention — and not the kind he wanted.
A North Side community group is pressuring city officials to take action against the shop he’s running on East Ohio Street in Deutschtown. Pittsburgh police arrested him this spring on nine drug charges; they argue lab results prove he’s selling marijuana illegally.
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office is battling Younger in court, where he’s representing himself. One landlord tossed Hippie Town out of a Downtown location. And, on the North Side, a district judge said Younger doesn’t have the right permits to operate.
Younger is also tangling with authorities outside of Pittsburgh.
On Jan. 2, he pleaded guilty to drug possession and trafficking charges in Portage County, Ohio, about 20 miles northeast of Akron. Two months ago, he skipped his sentencing hearing.
In March, Younger was arrested in Indiana County for selling marijuana illegally at his Hippie Town store there. The case is pending.
Younger said Hippie Town is being selectively prosecuted because he is a Black man with a prison record. He’s fighting back the way he has several times before — using his brains, legal strategies learned after time in prison, and without a lawyer.
During his May 20 court hearing, Younger stood his ground against police and the DA’s office.
“Others have the same product as me, and they’re not being bothered,” Younger said.
“This office does not engage in selective prosecution,” Allegheny County First Assistant District Attorney Rebecca D. Spangler said in a prepared statement issued after Younger’s hearing. “Nor do we file charges or not file charges based on public opinion.”
Legal battles
The battle pitting Hippie Town against the community echoes a struggle seen across the country — frustrated residents fighting what they consider an unsavory business. The residents are often described as practicing NIMBY (for “not in my backyard”).
“It’s very common for controversial real estate business pursuits to encounter NIMBY resistance concerned over increased traffic and crime, as well as decreased property values and quality of life,” said Patrick Slevin, a Florida-based consultant who mediates conversations between communities and business or real estate developers. His website calls him a “NIMBY Crisis Expert.”
When Slevin was mayor of the Tampa-area city of Safety Harbor, Fla., in the late 1990s, he attempted to rein in “public nuisance” businesses, he said. Today, he looks at why some businesses and real estate developments ignite controversy.
“For example, (for) affordable housing, we see the same arguments of traffic, crime and property values to hide prejudices driven by racism, elitism and ageism,” Slevin said. “I don’t know enough about this case, but I do know you cannot always take NIMBY rhetoric at face value.”
Younger’s case shows how difficult it is to shut down a business in Pittsburgh, even amid mounting complaints and criminal charges. It also underscores a shaky relationship between neighborhood activists and Mayor Ed Gainey, whose administration’s response to concerns over Hippie Town has frustrated some.
Irv Gable co-owns the nearby East Street Beer and rents out multiple apartments in the neighborhood. He believes the city should have the power to shut down businesses under certain conditions.
“The question is … why hasn’t it been done?” Gable said. “We have a neighborhood to protect here.”
Gable and the East Allegheny Community Council started emailing the Gainey administration with concerns about Hippie Town two weeks after the shop opened in a former bank in April 2023.
Gable said he still is waiting for a satisfactory response.
Mayoral response
Younger sued Pittsburgh police in federal court in March, claiming the bureau violated his constitutional right to due process when officers raided a Hippie Town location Downtown in May 2023. In a 16-page complaint, which Younger handwrote, he also accused the DA’s office of pursuing a case without probable cause.
City Councilman Bobby Wilson’s district includes Deutschtown, officially called East Allegheny. Wilson said Gainey’s office has forwarded the matter to its Disruptive Properties Appeals Board, which can fine Hippie Town — but doesn’t appear able to shut it down.
Gainey’s office has refused to comment. Two spokeswomen for the mayor repeatedly declined to answer questions about Hippie Town, the Disruptive Properties Appeals Board or concerns North Siders have shared with the mayor.
“Public safety is aware of the community concerns regarding this establishment,” Gainey press secretary Olga George said in a prepared statement. “Charges have been filed and as things progress we will let you know.”
“Pittsburgh police do not have the power to just go in and shut down a business,” police spokeswoman Cara Cruz said.
Pittsburgh police say they recovered 80 pounds of illegal marijuana last year after raiding Hippie Town properties. They also found a “large quantity of marijuana” in a Pine home that belongs to Younger, a criminal complaint said.
The marijuana was “being packaged for distribution inside of the home, prior to being placed for sale at the store locations,” the complaint said.
After the Pine raid, police arrested Younger and Alexandra Veoni, 35, on drug charges. Police said Veoni shares the North Hills address with Younger. Her relationship to Hippie Town is unclear.
Attorney Wendy Williams, who represents Veoni, said the cannabis products Hippie Town sells are legal because of their low potency.
“They’re clearly targeting Hippie Town,” Williams said. “There clearly are others (selling these products).”
At least two other businesses within a block of Hippie Town’s North Side shop advertise similar goods. One store posts signs saying that customers don’t need to be registered with the state’s medical marijuana program to shop there.
Criminal cases
The recent drug charges that brought Younger to Pittsburgh Municipal Court in May aren’t his first run-in with the law.
Younger’s arrest record runs six pages and spans nearly 20 years, starting when he was jailed in 2006 and pleaded guilty on a disorderly conduct charge. Younger was 24 at the time.
In April 2012, Younger pleaded guilty to charges including marijuana possession and three counts of simple assault after he struck a Pittsburgh police officer with his car, then tried to flee. Police found marijuana in Younger’s car, which he was driving with a suspended license.
Younger was sentenced to three to six years in prison, court records show. He served nearly four years, according to the state Department of Corrections.
In September 2017, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Younger with assaulting a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier in the Pittsburgh area and stealing mail, court documents show. Younger pleaded guilty and a federal judge sentenced him to 15 months in prison. He was released in December 2018, according to federal Bureau of Prisons records.
In 2019, Younger pleaded guilty to an assault charge after a domestic dispute in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes neighborhood, court records show. He was imprisoned again, this time for less than a year.
Since Younger opened his Hippie Town location in the North Side last year, his landlord also has fought in court.
Investigators cited Klein Family Limited Partnership, owner of the North Side building, for operating under the wrong permit, court records show. District Judge Jehosha Wright sided with city permitting officials. The landlord appealed and lost.
Hippie Town’s 1,394-square-foot East Ohio Street shop, whose signage bills it as a “THC-A dispensary,” is zoned for a bank, officials said.
Younger, the only person named on Hippie Town forms filed in 2022 with the Department of State, told TribLive he was unaware of those court proceedings.
Klein Family Limited Partnership, the attorneys in the case, and Wright have not responded to calls seeking comment.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” said Slevin, the Florida consultant. “I’m too far up at 10,000 feet to see everything. But there’s patterns of behavior here that have to be accounted for and I don’t think the lack of outreach to the community has helped him at all.”
Hippie Town is not registered to sell marijuana or related products under Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program, according to the state Department of Health.
It doesn’t have a permit to grow or process hemp — which, like marijuana, is cultivated from the Cannabis sativa plant, the Department of Agriculture said. Congress legalized hemp production in 2018.
Area business owners claim that drug crime has increased since Hippie Town opened on East Ohio Street last spring. Statistics from police don’t bear out those statements.
There were about 90 drug arrests in or near East Ohio Street from Jan. 1, 2023, through the end of April this year, nearly two dozen of them within a block or two of Younger’s shop, according to police data. No drug arrests, however, have been made inside or in front of Hippie Town since it opened, the data showed.
Neighbor response
Barbara Burns looks out the front window of her quaint Deutschtown shop and sees a business district in transition.
Several tidy businesses operate on East Ohio Street near her Sweet Time General Store, which Burns opened in 2001: a flower and design shop in a renovated building, a Prantl’s Bakery, a contemporary cuisine restaurant where a pork-chop main course runs $40.
Pittsburgh and the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority announced a $4.9 million plan in 2021 to redevelop three vacant buildings on East Ohio Street. Hippie Town wasn’t the sort of business Burns hoped that plan would bring to her block.
“When you have a problem, you look for the level of government that is engaged there for help,” said Burns, a former state representative and Pittsburgh councilwoman who’s a lifelong North Sider.
“You don’t wait until there’s a brouhaha in a neighborhood to sit down and say ‘Maybe we should have some rules,’ ” Burns said. “Government is in the business of rules — that’s what their job is: They make the rules. And if people don’t like your rules, they vote you out.”
It’s hard to force a business to close in Pittsburgh, multiple people told TribLive.
The city’s Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections only can shut down a business only if conditions there threaten public safety, said Wilson, the City Council member.
That’s not the case with Hippie Town, he said.
The rules on shutting down a shop selling cannabis-related products also are unclear, Wilson and others told TribLive.
“What is mind-blowing to me is to know that this business was allowed to open and then remain open, even after it was investigated and determined to not have the city permits … to operate,” East Allegheny Community Council president Douglas Kamper wrote in a March 5 email to community liaisons for the mayor’s office.
The ability to shut down businesses of concern is different for “nuisance bars.” The state Liquor Control Board sets guidelines for how state officials can refuse to renew alcohol licenses, spokesman Shawn M. Kelly said. The board typically objects to the renewal of more than 150 licenses a year.
In eastern Pennsylvania, one district attorney said his office has done “some enforcement work” in vape shops and convenience stores carrying cannabis-related products.
Berks County District Attorney John Adams said some businesses benefit over confusion about marijuana sales.
Adams’ office hasn’t filed criminal charges to date.
“We haven’t shut down any business, nor have we taken steps,” Adams said. “The law is so confusing. … I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole.”
No clear answers
It remains unclear what actions the Disruptive Properties Appeal Board, whose members Gainey appointed, can take with Hippie Town.
The mayor’s office refused to provide information about the board, how many cases it has handled or how its members were selected.
Four of the board’s five members didn’t respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment. Board member Rachel Webber told a TribLive reporter she couldn’t discuss the matter and hung up the phone.
“No member of the disruptive property board is available to speak with you,” said George, Gainey’s press secretary, in an email. “We do not wish to taint the board process regarding any business.”
She said the board’s reports, once released, will speak for themselves.
Pittsburgh law says the board can charge a property owner for the cost of police and others responding to their business. The board also can file misdemeanor charges if a business owner is arrested for felonies, including drug possession.
There is no mention of closing or shutting down a business, however, in city code related to the board.
The fact that city action has not included shutting down the business worries Kamper, the East Allegheny Community Council leader.
“I think about the detriment it had on trying to grow and a neighborhood that is impacted by drugs in general,” Kamper wrote in an email to city officials earlier this year. “I think (about) all those who were either negatively impacted or harmed as a result of the failure to close this business or require them to have appropriate permits and licenses. … I think about all that could have been avoided if action was taken.”
Kamper didn’t respond to phone calls seeking additional comment.
Younger is set to appear in Common Pleas court on Friday on drug charges from his three Hippie Town shops in Pittsburgh.
He has a hearing in Indiana County six days later.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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