{"id":2452908,"date":"2020-01-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-to-raise-tobacco-age-despite-federal-action\/"},"modified":"2020-01-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T07:00:00","slug":"pitkin-county-to-raise-tobacco-age-despite-federal-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pitkin-county-to-raise-tobacco-age-despite-federal-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin County to raise tobacco age despite federal action"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pitkin County commissioners are scheduled to vote Wednesday to raise the county\u2019s minimum age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21 years old even though the federal government beat them to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a suspicion the feds were gonna (raise the age to 21), but we didn\u2019t think it would happen so fast,\u201d said Karen Koenemann, Pitkin County\u2019s public health director. \u201cWe thought it would take nine months to be implemented, but they just went ahead and did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nationwide age minimum of 21 went into effect Dec. 20, after President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion budget bill that amended the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, according to an announcement by the Food and Drug Administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is now illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product \u2014 including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes \u2014 to anyone under 21,\u201d according to the notice on the FDA\u2019s website. \u201cThe FDA will provide additional details on this issue as they become available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s Department of Revenue is aware of the changes in the federal minimum tobacco age, but because it occurred during the holidays and because the state doesn\u2019t license tobacco retailers, it\u2019s not yet clear what action the state will take, said Suzi Karrer, DOR spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the federal government took action mainly because of \u2026 the vaping issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wendy Smith, manager of the Conoco gas station at the Airport Business Center, said she\u2019d seen something about the change recently, though it wasn\u2019t of huge importance because the store voluntarily raised its minimum tobacco age to 21 a year ago. A tobacco retailer in Glenwood Springs said her store received a notice from the FDA in the past week.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Pitkin County officials plan to move forward with plans to pass a county ordinance raising the minimum tobacco age to 21, Koenemann said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will allow us to have local enforcement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County\u2019s ordinance, which will go into effect Jan. 8 if commissioners approve it on first reading, will levy a significantly different penalty than state law, Koenemann said.<\/p>\n

Colorado law currently says a person under age 18 who purchases tobacco can be fined $100. Pitkin County\u2019s law takes a slightly different approach, where retailers who sell tobacco to those under 21 are held accountable and can be fined a civil penalty of $1,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event of a retail sale of cigarettes, tobacco or nicotine products to a minor, liability for violating this prohibition attaches to the sales agent or employee of the retail establishment as well as to the retail establishment\u2019s owner or owners,\u201d according to the Pitkin County ordinance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to penalize youth,\u201d Koenemann said. \u201cThe onus is on the retailers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioners are set to debate the tobacco ordinance Wednesday at their regular, twice-monthly meeting, which begins at noon.<\/p>\n

In June 2017, the Aspen City Council voted to raise the age<\/a>, making Aspen the first government entity in Colorado to increase the purchase age.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County voters passed a tobacco tax in November, which went into effect. Jan. 1, that adds $3.20 to the price of a pack of cigarettes with an annual 10-cent increase until the tax reaches $4 per pack. Other tobacco and nicotine products will be taxed at 40%.<\/p>\n

The city of Aspen was the first municipality in the state to pass a tobacco tax<\/a>, when voters in November 2017 approved a tax similar to the one now in effect in Pitkin County.<\/p>\n

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

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

Pitkin County commissioners are scheduled to vote Wednesday to raise the county\u2019s minimum age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21 years old even though the federal government beat them to it. \u201cThere was a suspicion the feds were gonna (raise the age to 21), but we didn\u2019t think it would happen so fast,\u201d said […]<\/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":["post-2452908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 22:34:55","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\/2452908","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=2452908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}