Vegetable glycerin is a common household product, used for cosmetics or sweeteners. But two months ago, owners of The Market in Tuscany Square started wondering if it was being used for something else.

"We noticed boys coming in to buy it, bottles of it consistently,” said Nina Hollenbeck, Co-Owner of The Market. “So we decided to check in on why they were doing that because it's not the target market for glycerin. "

What they found? Reports of teens using vegetable glycerin to mix with marijuana so they can vape the drug. This a trend that local officials are seeing an increase in.

"It's unfortunately becoming popular among the younger crowds,” said Officer Collin Smith, from the Spearfish Police. “And we found a couple [of vapes] in the schools and it's an up and coming trend right now with these new vape pens."

The glycerin, referred to as juice, makes marijuana much more potent, and kids only need to use a little to get big high.

"And what we will see is they'll take hash oil, it's a concentrate from marijuana, and they will add it into e-juice,” said Smith. “So that when they are smoking their vape device, they are still getting a high from the THC content that is inside the hash oil."

For kids it's an easier way to hide they are smoking from their parents.

"We've seen an increase of vaping in our youth and it presents a unique challenge because they are easily cancelable,” said Chris Hilsip, Sergeant from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. “And parents don't understand how they work and what they can be used to ingest."

The owners at The Market pulled the vegetable glycerin from the shelves earlier this week because they didn’t want their products being used this way.

"We don't wanna help them use drugs in any way if that's what they are actually using it for," said Hillary Khachikian, Co-Owner of The Market.

They will still be selling the glycerin, but you have to ask for it.