Denver approves poll petition in search of repeal of flavored tobacco ban

Denver voters will probably be requested whether or not they need to hold or overturn town’s ban on flavored tobacco after the Denver Elections Division discovered {that a} poll petition by opponents had sufficient signatures.

If voters reject the ban, it could roll again a near-unanimous vote of the Metropolis Council in December to ban gross sales of practically all flavored tobacco and nicotine merchandise within the metropolis. Council members sided with public well being and youngsters’s advocates who argued the merchandise lure younger youngsters into utilizing an addictive product.

In March, a coalition of Denver vape shops known as “Citizen Energy!” submitted 17,000 signatures in hopes of touchdown on the poll. The town had 25 days to confirm that not less than 9,494 of them got here from eligible voters.

Ben Warwick, a spokesman for the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Workplace, mentioned Wednesday that the petition had been declared adequate. The workplace is ready till a protest interval ends Friday to inform the council.

The poll query, as said on the petition, asks voters whether or not they need to retain the ordinance. It is going to be as much as the council to find out the election date; the subsequent common election is Nov. 4.

In an announcement concerning the poll query, one member of the coalition — vape retailer proprietor Phil Guerin — known as the ban “misguided” and mentioned it could “bankrupt lots of of small family-owned and minority-owned companies.”

“This ban is an assault on family-owned companies already fighting rising prices and inflation,” mentioned Guerin, the proprietor of Myxed Up Creations. “It gained’t cease individuals from shopping for these merchandise — it can simply ship them to Lakewood and Aurora, leaving Denver companies and town’s financial system to endure.”

Tobacco corporations and teams representing retailers of the merchandise mounted a major lobbying effort when the council was contemplating the ban. It largely fell on deaf ears and just one council member, Kevin Flynn, voted in opposition to it.

Flynn mentioned he believed the ban would create a black marketplace for the merchandise. Nevertheless, Denver police officers informed the council that they weren’t apprehensive about that chance in March.

The brand new legislation, which took impact March 18, requires retailers to take away flavored tobacco merchandise from cabinets, together with e-cigarettes, vaporizer cartridges and nicotine pouches in addition to menthol cigarettes.