{"id":1313636,"date":"2019-08-16T10:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T16:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/tobacco-tax-headed-to-glenwood-springs-voters-flavored-product-ban-21-purchasing-age-approved\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T10:28:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T16:28:00","slug":"tobacco-tax-headed-to-glenwood-springs-voters-flavored-product-ban-21-purchasing-age-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tobacco-tax-headed-to-glenwood-springs-voters-flavored-product-ban-21-purchasing-age-approved\/","title":{"rendered":"Tobacco tax headed to Glenwood Springs voters; flavored product ban, 21+ purchasing age approved"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Protestors opposed to a new tobacco tax in Glenwood Springs showed up outside City Hall Thursday evening where City Council was set to discuss putting a tax question on the fall ballot.<\/strong>
Matthew Bennett \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A tax question concerning the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products within the city of Glenwood Springs will appear on this November\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the tobacco flavor ban and tax question stood outside City Hall with signs that read, \u201cStop the Flavor Ban\u201d and \u201cNo 40-percent Tax\u201d ahead of Thursday evening\u2019s contentious City Council meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the flavor ban was a point of specific interest for a lot of you, but that has passed when we did the consent agenda,\u201d Mayor Jonathan Godes said as people filed into council chambers intending to address the issue.<\/p>\n

The ban on flavored tobacco products and vaping oils had already been approved on first reading at the Aug. 1 council meeting, and was formalized along with other items on Thursday\u2019s consent agenda.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou have totally destroyed us, and obviously you don\u2019t care.\u201d\u2014 Nanci Brown, whose husband owns The Magic Dragon Vape Shop in West Glenwood<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cThat is now law for Glenwood Springs; possibly one of the most restrictive anti-vaping laws in the state,\u201d Godes said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the flavor ban, City Council unanimously approved a sales tax question for voters to decide in November. It would tack on $4 to a pack of cigarettes and impose a 40-percent tax on the price of all other tobacco products sold in Glenwood Springs, should it pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, thank you for the action you took earlier tonight,\u201d Carbondale Mayor Dan Richardson said before the Glenwood Springs councilors.<\/p>\n

Carbondale has also enacted a 21-plus age limit for purchase of tobacco products and other stringent new rules.<\/p>\n

Several opponents of the flavor ban and tax question sat silently behind the Carbondale mayor with signs that stated how long they had smoked cigarettes before quitting.<\/p>\n

Their signs attributed the ability to quit smoking to the use of flavored nicotine oil which, when super-heated in a special device, creates a vapor that can be inhaled, instead of smoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that vaping, so far, has proven to be a viable alternative for smokers, but it\u2019s also proven to be an epidemic for our youth,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

Because the Glenwood Council would not take public comment on the flavor ban, many area vape shop owners and employees left without saying their piece. Some called the tax question a \u201cmoot point.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its Aug. 1 meeting, Council did take public comment on the first reading of the flavor ban ordinance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am 58 years old, and I\u2019ll be out of business,\u201d said Dan Rzonca. \u201cEvery vape shop around here will be gone. \u2026 I have nothing else to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of the flavor ban, council also approved raising the age to buy and sell tobacco products within Glenwood Springs to 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband owns The Magic Dragon, and you have totally destroyed us, and obviously you don\u2019t care,\u201d Nanci Brown said of their West Glenwood vape shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just go ahead and put it on a consent item so that we have no more say. Boulder didn\u2019t even do that. Boulder\u2019s is tabled,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I hope you\u2019re all happy, and I hope you have a nice life because you have just destroyed our life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should voters approve the Nov. 5 ballot question, the tobacco tax would take effect on Jan. 1, 2020. The flavor ban and purchasing age do not require a vote of the people and are set to take effect in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

City Council also intends to separately address new, higher licensing fees for businesses selling tobacco products in Glenwood, but at a later time.<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protestors opposed to a new tobacco tax in Glenwood Springs showed up outside City Hall Thursday evening where City Council was set to discuss putting a tax question on the fall ballot.Matthew Bennett \/ Post Independent A tax question concerning the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products within the city of Glenwood Springs will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1313636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 23:58:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}