Loveland, a town in the U.S. state of Colorado, is poised to implement a flavored vaping and tobacco ban across the city.
– On November 24, the Loveland council voted 6 to 3 to introduce the ban, which was recommended after a council of public health experts and anti-smoking advocates to curb underaged vaping in the local community.
The actual ordinance would ban the sale of flavored e-liquids, smokeless tobacco, and menthol cigarettes and other non-tobacco flavored vaping and smoking products.
Such a measure emulates the ban the Food and Drug Administration implemented at the national level, which includes a nationwide ban on non-tobacco flavored nicotine and tobacco products.
Some critics of these bans, including myself and other local special interest groups, have attacked the measure as a means to punish law-abiding businesses and consumers, including the ban on flavored oral dip products and menthols.
According to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, local politician John Fogle said that he has changed his position on the proposed ban after voting in favor of its introduction.
“What changed for me was when I started getting calls from our merchants,” Fogle said. “I am absolutely for keeping vaping products out of the hands of our kids. But at some point, this crossed the tracks and became a maneuver to take legal products away from our citizens.”
Fogle also believes that the council should postpone the vote until the beginning of 2021, which gives them more time to study the issue.
These developments stemmed from a December 1 marathon discussion about vaping.
