{"id":1315425,"date":"2019-10-08T18:39:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T00:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=988899"},"modified":"2019-10-09T09:24:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T15:24:52","slug":"garfield-county-balks-at-stricter-tobacco-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/garfield-county-balks-at-stricter-tobacco-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"Garfield County balks at stricter tobacco regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Garfield County commissioners are split on raising the tobacco purchasing age, but flavor bans and licensing tobacco retailers are on hold for now.<\/p>\n

During a work session Tuesday, two commissioners indicated they would approve a resolution raising the tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21 for stores in unincorporated Garfield County.<\/p>\n

Glenwood Springs<\/a> and Carbondale<\/a> have approved aggressive rules against flavored nicotine products and implemented licensing requirements for retailers, to combat the widespread use of e-cigarette and tobacco use among students.<\/p>\n

Eagle and Pitkin counties, along with multiple cities in the region, are implementing stricter tobacco policies following a 2019 law that allows municipalities to enact their own regulations.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Mike Jankovsky interrupted a presentation of the various options, including flavored tobacco bans, and retail licensing, to say there are questions about the legality of enforcing tobacco policies.<\/p>\n

The issues \u201cneed to be resolved before we can force 21 and under tobacco policy,\u201d Jankovsky said, and suggested that county attorneys draft letters asking state representatives to address the legal issues.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what particular legal exposure Jankovsky was referencing. The commissioners held an executive session closed to the public Monday to discuss the county\u2019s authority to regulate tobacco.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the commissioners were not satisfied that they had sufficient authority to enforce the regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do anything about flavored tobacco until we get better direction from the state of Colorado,\u201d Jankovsky said.<\/p>\n

It was a slightly different story on the minimum purchasing age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no mystery about who is dragging their feet on changing (the age),\u201d commission chair John Martin said.<\/p>\n

Martin said he was against increasing the tobacco purchasing age, as many cities across Colorado have done, because it restricts personal choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to be sick, and you want to have diseases, and what-have-you from smoking, that is your choice. I do not encourage anyone to smoke or vape, don\u2019t get me wrong, but I am protecting the rights of those people that have the right to die for their country, to vote for the people in office, etc., to buy their tobacco if they want to,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

Increasing the purchasing age to 21 reduces a teenager\u2019s access to nicotine, a highly addictive substance, according to Garfield County Public Health Director Yvonne Long.<\/p>\n

\u201c15 and 16-year-olds probably don\u2019t have access to 21-year-olds, like they do to 18-year-olds, to buy those products for them,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

While the majority of the board favored a resolution raising the purchasing age, they don\u2019t see many enforcement options.<\/p>\n

After implementing the purchasing age, the county could do compliance checks and consider licensing for the 10 stores who sell tobacco in unincorporated Garfield County at a future date.<\/p>\n

The executive session Monday included a presentation from county attorneys on the authority to regulate tobacco.<\/p>\n

Because it was a closed session, it\u2019s unclear exactly what those issues were.<\/p>\n

When the Tuesday work session began, however, the commissioners appeared to know each other\u2019s position on the age limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a 2-to-1 vote to raise the age,\u201d Jankovsky said soon after the start of Tuesday\u2019s work session.<\/p>\n

If the commissioners made a decision during the closed executive session, that could violate Colorado\u2019s open meeting laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Colorado Open Meeting Law is clear that executive sessions are for deliberations on authorized topics, not decision-making,\u201d said Jeff Roberts of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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

Garfield County commissioners are split on raising the tobacco purchasing age, but flavor bans and licensing tobacco retailers are on hold for now. During a work session Tuesday, two commissioners indicated they would approve a resolution raising the tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21 for stores in unincorporated Garfield County. Glenwood Springs and Carbondale have approved aggressive […]<\/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":["post-1315425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 19:59:56","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\/1315425","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=1315425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1315453,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315425\/revisions\/1315453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}