Denver Mayor Michael Hancock used his veto power for only the second time in his tenure to block a bill that would have banned the sale of most flavored tobacco and vaping products in the city in 2023, drawing criticism from those who say the mayor chose to put profits over a public health crisis.
Hancock sent a letter Friday morning to City Council that said a Denver ban would be ineffective because surrounding counties would still allow sales and it would harm small businesses. He declined to speculate on whether the Council will override his veto during their Monday night meeting. But the mayor offered to work on a compromise, including boosting enforcement of existing laws, in the coming year.
“I believe in passing and implementing effective policies,” Hancock said in an interview with The Denver Post. “I didn’t see that this bill singling Denver out would do anything to keep nicotine and vaping products from our young people.”
Public health advocates, who argued the ban is a necessary step to curb an epidemic among teens, blasted Hancock’s veto.
“There is no excuse for Mayor Hancock vetoing this critical ordinance, siding with Big Tobacco over Denver’s kids and the 100+ organizations who support this policy,” Jodi Radke, regional director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in an emailed statement.
In the letter to Council, Hancock wrote that it would be more effective and appropriate to pursue a statewide ban through the legislature. He told The Denver Post he has reached out to the city’s legislators to encourage them to draft a bill that would outlaw flavored smoking products across Colorado.
“Denver is one of dozens of cities in our metro area, and absent similar bans in our neighboring communities, it is not a prohibitive enough barrier if our youth are simply able to travel across Denver’s border to the nearest convenience store and obtain flavored tobacco products,” the letter said. “We cannot appropriately address the public health impacts of youth tobacco use if that public health response occurs only in Denver.”
Hancock also said the ban would destroy many small, minority-owned retail stores.
“If we were to institute this ban only within our jurisdiction, many local businesses and business owners would experience a severe drop in their income, some may choose to locate to other jurisdictions where such a ban is not in place, and others would have to close their businesses entirely, leaving their employees out of a job. This economic disruption will be felt by Denver alone,” the letter said.
The veto was cheered by those who opposed the ban.
“I can say we are breathing a sigh of relief today,”Monica Vandrusko, owner of Cignot, a vape shop, in northwest Denver, said. “We are happy to hear Hancock wants to work with us instead of just putting us out of business.”
Denver City Council approved the ban on most flavored tobacco, including menthol cigarettes, and vaping products on Dec. 6, and the ban would have been effective in July 2023. Under the law, adults in Denver only would be able to buy flavored smoking products in hookah lounges and cigar and pipe shops.
The idea to ban flavored smoking products originated with Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, who said the conversation started after her teen daughter was included in a text message chain with classmates who were trying to illegally buy flavored vaping products.
After Hancock announced his veto, Sawyer and the bill’s co-sponsor, Debbie Ortega, blasted Hancock’s decision in a statement, saying, “We are disappointed in this outcome, but we don’t think anyone in Denver will be surprised to hear that our Mayor chose profit over people.”
In an interview with The Denver Post, Sawyer said, “It’s a public health issue. It’s an epidemic among our children. It’s been named an epidemic by the surgeon general.”
The issue pitted health advocates against Big Tobacco, mom-and-pop smoke shops and hookah lounges. But those latter groups also didn’t agree on how the bill should be written, often lobbying for their own interests rather than joining forces against the ban.
Council’s debate over the ban stretched for months, and lobbyists put pressure on the city’s politicians to vote in their favor. Some Council members said it was the most heated proposal they’d seen in years, and the various interested groups spent big bucks on the cause.
The original bill was amended to allow hookah lounges and cigar shops to keep selling flavored products. Hancock said he didn’t agree with the strategy to carve out exceptions.
“Moreover, providing an exemption for natural cigars and hookah lounges puts us in a position of not only picking winners and losers in this ban, but also raises equity concerns that certain businesses and residents should not face the burdens this ban will place on others,” the letter to council said.
The Friday veto was only the second time Hancock has used that executive power in his 10-year tenure. He vetoed a bill in 2020 that would have repealed the city’s ban on pit bulls. Later that year, the city’s voters overturned the ban on the dog breed.
Council needs nine votes to override the veto, and it is unclear whether there will be enough support to do so on Monday. The bill was approved 8-3 with two members absent.
One of those who was absent, Chris Herndon, has said he opposed the ban. The other council member who missed the vote, Kevin Flynn, has proposed amendments to the ban, but his office said he is on vacation with limited access to email in order to comment.
Hancock and vape shop owners said Friday they would be willing to revisit the issue in 2022. And Hancock promised to use existing laws as a blunt instrument.
“We ought to treat tobacco products similar to how we treat alcohol and marijuana. If you’re selling to people who are underage, you could lose your license period,” the mayor said.
Phil Guerin, owner of Myxxed Up vaping store on East Colfax Avenue, said Council overreached in its effort to stop youth vaping. He advocates vape products as a safe alternative for those who want to quit smoking cigarettes.
“The 30 small business vaping stores in Denver want to be treated like the marijuana shops,” Guerin said in a statement. “We all use strict safety protocols, such as ID scanners, video recordings, and other measures to ensure that youth do not purchase flavored vaping products.”
But Sawyer doubts anything will change if the veto stands.
Denver doesn’t have the capacity to regulate vaping products in the same manner the state regulates marijuana laws. And if the mayor wanted to use his executive powers to curb sales, he would have done so, Sawyer said.
“We’ve been having these conversations for a year,” she said. “Something could have been done before now.”
