
On October 6, a Denver City Council committee will vote on a proposal to forbid the sale of all flavored vape juices, including flavored tobacco products.
“Vaping, particularly youth vaping, is a public health crisis in Denver, across the state and across the country. The ban is specific to flavors because it is the thing that kids identify as what drew them to smoking in the first place, and the goal here is to get kids not to smoke in the first place,” says Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, who is co-sponsoring the initiative with Councilwoman Debbie Ortega.
The only acceptable tobacco products would be tobacco-flavored products.
Besides from forbidding flavored vaping products, the proposed ordinance would prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products consumed by chewing or smoking, including menthol cigarettes and hookah tobacco.
“Denver has led in many ways in the past. You know, we banned the free distribution of tobacco products on the 16th Street Mall that used to be handed out freely to just about anybody that would take them. We banned advertising at the National Western Stock Show,” says Ortega. “And I think this is another example of where we can lead. Whether neighboring jurisdictions choose to follow or not, that’s up to them. But I think this is a public-policy issue that’s worth bringing.”
Sawyer recognizes that it’s a “controversial issue,” and former smokers who kicked the habit by switching to vaping are likely to speak on the October 6 committee meeting that allows 15 minutes of public speaking.
Denver officials have concluded that vape flavors are hooking kids.
“The biggest area of concern for us is that one in five kids uses vape products regularly,” says Tristan Sanders, public-health manager at the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, citing data from a Healthy Kids Colorado survey. And eight in ten kids who vape use flavored products, according to the Food and Drug Administration. “What these kids are interested in, and why they’re using these products, kind of centers around them being flavored and attractive to kids,” adds Sanders.
On a federal level, the Trump administration spearheaded a partial crackdown on vaping products that took effect in 2020. Stores are no longer able to sell flavored pods, the disposable cartridges that vapers place into electronic vaping devices; the only pods shops can still stock are menthol- and tobacco-flavored ones. The federal crackdown did not affect flavored vape juices that come in bottles and that vapers pour into pods or vape devices themselves, however.
The proposed Denver ordinance makes no exception for any type of flavored tobacco products, including those sold in hookah lounges. “Part of it is, the minute you start doing one carve-out, the expectation is you should do more,” Ortega contends.