{"id":2449397,"date":"2019-10-01T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-board-supports-tobacco-law-changes\/"},"modified":"2019-10-01T22:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T04:08:00","slug":"pitkin-county-board-supports-tobacco-law-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pitkin-county-board-supports-tobacco-law-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin County board supports tobacco law changes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aspen’s new $3 city tax on a pack of cigarettes that started in 2018 brought in $436,000, which is $111,000 more than projected on the 2017 ballot question.<\/strong>
Anna Stonehouse \/ The Aspen Times file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Hot on the heels of their colleagues in Denver, Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday unanimously expressed support for raising the county\u2019s minimum age for buying tobacco or nicotine products to 21.<\/p>\n

County board members, however, went even further and mirrored their peers on Aspen City Council to also support a ban on flavored tobacco products, which will include flavored chewing tobacco and menthol cigarettes that have been available for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly support this,\u201d said Commissioner George Newman, adding that he wanted to see the word \u201cvaping\u201d in the county\u2019s ban \u201cto raise awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Pitkin County enacts the ban, it will close one of the last remaining pockets in the Roaring Fork Valley where those younger than 21 can purchase tobacco or products containing nicotine. Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs have already raised the age, while Eagle County\u2019s increase of minimum age limit goes into effect Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

Garfield County commissioners are looking at raising the age and banning flavored nicotine products.<\/p>\n

Denver City Council on Monday unanimously voted to raise the minimum age for tobacco and nicotine products from 18 to 21 years old, with fines for retailers that violate the new law.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County commissioners agreed in July to ask voters in November 2020 to increase the per pack price by $3.20 to keep pace with the city of Aspen\u2019s tax, which was passed by 75% of city voters in April 2018 and climbs by 10 cents annually for the next nine years. Glenwood Springs and Eagle and Summit counties have each proposed a $4 per pack tobacco tax in November 2020 that voters will decide.<\/p>\n

Finally, Aspen, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs have all banned flavored nicotine products. All three municipalities, however, exempted \u201ctobacco-flavored\u201d nicotine products and flavored smoking cessation products from the ban, said Rita Turetsky of Pitkin County Public Health.<\/p>\n

Those two products could help smokers, who clearly benefit from quitting and likely benefit from the switch to nicotine vaping devices. Cigarettes are, by far, the worst and most dangerous tobacco product around, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are far fewer chemicals in e-cigarettes than in regular cigarettes,\u201d Turetsky said, though she added that the long-term affects of vaping are not yet known. \u201cBut if they\u2019re switching over (from cigarettes to vaping devices) there\u2019s no reason they need cr\u00e8me brulee or bubblegum (flavored vapes).\u201d<\/p>\n

Those flavors appeal predominantly to young people, she said, which is one of the main reasons behind the flavored ban.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s rate of youth nicotine vaping is twice the national average and the highest in the United States, Turetsky said. A 2017 high school survey found that 53% of students between Aspen and Parachute had tried vaping.<\/p>\n

At Aspen High School, more than 58% of respondents in the 2017 survey said they\u2019d tried vaping, she said. Rates of cigarette and chewing tobacco use at AHS also are high.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids say they can\u2019t go into the bathrooms (at school) because everyone is vaping,\u201d Turetsky said.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County also is looking at increasing enforcement of the new tobacco laws, with fines and frequency of compliance checks to be worked out later. The minimum age limit and flavor ban will go into effect once the Pitkin County board passes the ordinances, which hasn\u2019t yet been scheduled.<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen’s new $3 city tax on a pack of cigarettes that started in 2018 brought in $436,000, which is $111,000 more than projected on the 2017 ballot question.Anna Stonehouse \/ The Aspen Times file photo Hot on the heels of their colleagues in Denver, Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday unanimously expressed support for raising the county\u2019s […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2449397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 16:04:22","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}