Sharing if you have not seen these yet. The second article and sentence below stood out to me.
Dillon with a total of two locations has moved forward with a full flavor ban - Breckenridge and Silverthorne are currently in progress, it's hard to imagine how we are supposed to keep up with lower volumes and higher wages unique to Summit county if they ban ban products that we legally sell to adults that provide the support necessary for that to happen.
Below you will find 2 links to letter to the editor articles our members submitted.
Letter to the editor: Nicotine flavor ban threatens business and public health | SummitDaily.com
Below is the letter CWPMA sent on behalf of the industry to the Mayor and City Council of Dillon
Mayor Skowyra and Members of the Dillon City Council,
I wanted to reach out today as the director of the Association which covers Convenience stores in Colorado, and is also responsible for the transport of the 2.3 billion gallons of fuel in Colorado with the following thoughts.
I wanted to offer, for your consideration, that while I know the local public health agencies, funded by amendment 35 dollars, are pushing for this across the county, that I think a more measured approach makes more sense to ensure that Towns, cities and counties don't disregard the progress that the state is making relative to youth use rates.
Considering the unique importance of Dillon and Keystone to the Association relative to our Loveland Pass/EJMT discussion, I wanted to transparently offer the following -
1. According to the most recent Healthy kids survey flavored vaping is the issue facing Colorado kids - every single other category is at all time lows. CWPMA would be supportive of the targeted elimination, similar to the City of Boulder, of flavored vaping products from the community. The federal government has recently authorized the sale of some products that have been proven not to reverse the progress that companies in this space are making towards public health and a lower harm future. FDA authorization in the space means that the products have proved that they are not marketed to kids. I think a salient point would be to ask, what percentage of kids use these products by category, in your city and in Summit country generally.
I think you will find that flavored vaping is the issue.
2. American companies and associations like mine are fighting against foreign Chinese manufactures with the help from law enforcement, and the Federal department of Homeland security. Making things that are already illegal in the community more illegal doesn't help. While I freely admit, cities like Dillion won't have the illicit trade issues that communities like Denver just signed up for, it's important to note that the a ban on the responsible sale of FDA authorized products won't remove these from your community,
3. A state ban on flavored products is unlikely. Not only did voters resoundingly pass Proposition EE, Including in Summit by a large margin, they tied the funding of the state pre-k program to revenue derived for the sale of these products. Banning products and then accepting the funding from those products is an interesting exercise in consistency, but that said, while it is essential to protect kids, taking choices away from adults for legal federally approved products is not something that is supported by Colorado.
4. Stores that lose these legal FDA approved sales, have to make up the revenue in other places, primarily in Fuel, Summit County because of property value and cost of living already has some of the highest gas prices in the state, ordinances like this will only exacerbate an already hard market and make things more expensive for people who don't use these products. When the Denver ordinance enforcement does into effect we are anticipating a 15% increase in fuel prices in the city.
I freely acknowledge that Dillon doesn't have a lot of gas stations or places where these products are sold, but that makes it even more imperative to take a reasoned approach -- You have our support if you limit the ordinance to flavored vaping products that do not have FDA /PMTA authorization.
Other things to consider - Partnership is a mutual endeavor,
- CWPMA is supporting an increase in almost 10 millions dollars for counties relative to local food safety inspections, we are doing this to alleviate stresses on county budgets that have not seen an increase years relative to health code inspections, however part of the money we are using is derived from the sale of the products that your ordinance seeks to ban.
- We have continued to take a measured approach, for almost a decade, for our trucks to try and safely access EJMT. It seems now more likely that the only effort at mitigation for hundreds of trucks that come through your community daily, will be trucks going eastbound. While in a perfect world we would have hoped to alleviate all the hazardous materials traffic going through Dillion, it is important to consider the communities along the south side of straight creek and that when that risk is alleviated that only then would it be better to redirect the flow of the trucks.
All policy decisions should be taken on their merits, but no decision rests in a vacuum, I would hope that Dillion and the other cities in the county that we understand are considering this, continue to view CWPMA as a partner organization and take a measured approach relative to the products kids are actually using, the sale of legal products to adults helps us support the wages benefits and other support to communities that expensive places like Summit county require, banning things that are not a youth issue, makes it harder.
Thank you.