Loveland City Council to take votes on flavored nicotine ban, retailer fee

LOVELAND — The Loveland City Council could adopt a new ordinance Tuesday night to ban flavored tobacco and vaping products and to require licensing for tobacco sellers in the city.

There are seven possible ordinances up for adoption with new rules ranging from bans on flavored vapes only rather than both vapes and tobacco products, to age-restricting stores to people. However, the city’s Youth Advisory Commission recommended that the council pass a license requirement, ban all flavored products and restrict any new license applications for stores within 500 feet of a school.

An application for a tobacco retail license would cost $300, which would go toward covering the cost of additional compliance visits.

The council first considered its options in late November in response to surveys suggesting almost a quarter of minors in Larimer County had used a vape within a 30-day period during 2019. Surveys among students in the Thompson School District show nearly half of high schoolers had vaped at least once, and a third had vaped in the 30 days before they were surveyed.

The majority of those survey respondents said they used flavored vape products.

More than six hours of testimony from retailers at the November meeting about potentially lost revenues and jobs led the council to spend the past several months gathering more community feedback.

If the ordinance passes, the city would follow Boulder in banning flavored nicotine products. Boulder passed its ordinance in the summer of 2019.

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