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Opponents Of Plan To Ban Flavored Tobacco Sales In Denver Say It Would Hurt Businesses

UPDATE: Denver Moves Ahead With Plan To Ban Majority Of Flavored Tobacco Products, Businesses Worry

DENVER (CBS4)- The Denver City Council on Monday is scheduled to take up a proposed ban of the sale of flavored tobacco, flavored vaping products, hookah, chewing tobacco and menthol cigarettes. The proposal is aimed at reducing youth tobacco use.

exhaling smoke from an electronic cigarette vaping teens vape pens nicotine
An illustration shows a man exhaling smoke from an electronic cigarette in Washington, DC on October 2, 2018. (credit: EVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images)

A group of retailers and industry advocates held a news conference on Monday morning to explain their opposition to the proposal. They said it would hurt small businesses by pushing buyers into neighboring cities.

"I hope city council today would listen to the businesses and the people who've lived here their whole lives and allow us to come together and find a means to help the youth. But this is not a way. This is a way to hurt businesses as well as open doors for black market sales and more police problems here in our city," said business owner Rashard Kingsley.

The group says most teens don't buy their flavored tobacco, but get it through social means like older relatives.

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