A trio of Denver Town Council individuals are spearheading a suggestion to prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco merchandise in Denver, with a focal point on blunting the enchantment of nicotine merchandise to younger folks with creating brains.
The hassle comes 3 years after then-Mayor Michael Hancock vetoed a identical ban, following months of discussion and intense lobbying on either side of the problem, together with from tobacco trade pursuits. That measure used to be crafted by means of a unique lineup of council individuals.
“We expect that is essential as it’s a public well being factor impacting our neighborhood,” Councilman Darrell Watson mentioned merely on Monday after a committee listening to that previewed the proposal. He had helped lay out the specifics of the proposed ban, which — like its predecessor — would outlaw the sale of flavored vaporizer cartridges and a large swath of different flavored merchandise, together with menthol cigarettes.
Tobacco use is the No. 1 reason behind preventable and untimely demise in Colorado, Watson mentioned, mentioning 2023 reporting by means of Colorado Public Radio.
Watson’s co-sponsors are Councilwomen Shontel Lewis and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez. Not one of the 3 served at the council in 2021 when Hancock vetoed the former invoice. The council later got here one vote wanting mustering the 9 essential to overturn the veto.
Not like his predecessor, Mayor Mike Johnston, who took workplace in mid-2023, has already dedicated to signing a flavored tobacco ban regulation if it makes it to his table.
“It’s essential that we give protection to the well being of all Denverites, particularly our adolescence,” mayoral spokeswoman Jordan Fuja mentioned of Johnston’s place.
Monday’s assembly used to be just a briefing. The ban has a protracted strategy to pass earlier than it might face a last council vote. Your next step for the deliberate proposal — a listening to earlier than the council’s Protection, Housing, Schooling and Homelessness committee — may just come once subsequent week.
“Our function is to carry the trade that earnings from those merchandise accountable, no longer younger individuals who had been centered and would possibly have already got been addicted,” Watson advised his fellow council individuals.
If handed, regulation would:
- Ban the sale of flavored tobacco merchandise, together with e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, flavored tobacco utilized in hookah pipes, flavored chewing tobacco and nicotine pouches.
- Replace town code to increase and explain the definition of tobacco merchandise to incorporate all kinds of nicotine supply.
- Center of attention on enforcement that goals outlets, keeping tobacco sale license holders chargeable for violations relatively than particular person retailer clerks.
The enforcement regime the sponsors envision would get started with a caution after a primary violation. However after a 2nd violation in a three-year duration, a store’s license could be suspended for as much as 30 days.
After a 3rd violation in 3 years, the license could be suspended for as much as 60 days. And a fourth violation all the way through that duration may just lead to a suspension of as much as a 12 months, Gonzales-Gutierrez mentioned.
She mentioned that whilst the ban would take impact 90 days after the ordinance passes, enforcement would no longer start till Jan. 1, 2026.
When Hancock vetoed the former measure, he echoed considerations from some combatants that it might hurt small companies within the town that depend at the sale of flavored vaping merchandise. He additionally mentioned younger folks would be capable to download nicotine and vaping merchandise somewhere else if handiest Denver acted; as an alternative, he supported the theory of a statewide ban.
On the time, the inclusion of a ban on menthol cigarettes break up advocates within the town’s Black neighborhood, since that flavored product lengthy has been advertised to Black shoppers.
Monday’s briefing integrated an avalanche of details and learn about effects shared by means of supporters. Jodi Radke, the regional director of the Marketing campaign for Tobacco-Loose Youngsters, highlighted merchandise that enchantment to youngsters and different adolescence, together with vaporizers which are embellished to seem like caricature characters or flavored like apple juice.
“90-fine p.c of present grownup tobacco customers began earlier than the age of 21, and the typical age of initiation is between 12 and 14 years outdated,” Radke mentioned. “And over 80% of those that begin at that age accomplish that for the reason that product is flavored.”
Radke’s group is amongst greater than 50 well being organizations that Watson counts as supporters so far. He estimated he and his co-sponsors had carried out 25 conferences to offer stakeholder enter.
Significantly lacking from Monday’s listening to used to be testimony from the tobacco trade or different most likely combatants of the ban. That’s most likely nonetheless to come back.
Councilman Kevin Flynn, who voted towards overturning Hancock’s veto in 2021, is poised to vote in contrast proposed ban, too. In his southwest Denver district, he mentioned, it might be simple for anyone to pass into some other jurisdiction and purchase flavored tobacco merchandise, rendering the town’s ban meaningless.
“I’m simply thru telling … adults what they may be able to purchase,” he mentioned. “If it’s a felony product, they ought in an effort to purchase it. I’m no longer going to inform them they may be able to’t.”
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