Dear Colorado Vaping Store Owner and Ally,
You are invited to attend either in-person or virtually the next committee hearing to debate HB 1064, the vaping flavor ban bill. We need approximately 25 people to testify either in-person or virtually.
The State House Finance committee hearing will be on Monday, April 4 at 1:30pm at the State Capital in Denver, which is 200 East Colfax Avenue, Denver. The committee meeting room is in the Capital basement – Room 0112.
Our opponents are attempting to repeal or remove the Age Restricted Amendment out of HB 1064 and ban all vaping flavored products in Colorado. We need to keep our voice strong and voice our opposition to this attempt to gut the bill. We also need the Representatives to vote on HB 1064.
First, to testify virtually, follow the steps in the link below beginning with “Remotely via Zoom”.
https://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2022A/commsumm.nsf/signIn.xsp
Second, regarding messaging, you will have three minutes to collect your thoughts, speak clearly, respectfully, passionately, and boldly.
Always address the Chair of the Finance committee as “Chairwoman” and address each Representative as “Representative Last Name”.
Third, regarding talking points, if you are a vaping store owner, share how you prevent youth from accessing vaping products, the negative consequences of a flavor ban (it will close your doors and bankrupt you), your overall positive economic impact of owning a store (number of employees, taxes you pay, number of sales), and how you help customers stay alive by quitting smoking.
If you are a store employee, share similar talking points listed above and share your story of how you got involved in the vaping sector.
If you are a customer, share how you use flavored vaping products to quit smoking more harmful cigarettes.
Fourth, please keep calling and emailing the 11 members of the State House Finance committee between now and April 4. Our opponents are vigorously communicating with these same committee members and even sending thousands of mailers. We need to be vigilant!
As always, contact us with questions or concerns.
Onward!
State House Finance Committee Members
State Representative and Chairwoman Shannon Bird (Democrat, Jefferson County)
303-866-2843
Shannon.bird.house@state.co.us
State Representative and Vice-Chair Marc Snyder (Democrat, El Paso County)
303-866-2932
Marc.synder.house@state.co.us
State Representative and Speaker Pro-Tem Adrienne Benavidez (Democrat, Adams County and Denver)
303-866-2964
Adrienne.benavidez.house@state.co.us
State Representative Lindsey Daugherty (Democrat, Jefferson County)
303-866-2950
Lindsey.daugherty.house@state.co.us
State Representative Matt Gray (Democrat, Broomfield and Boulder)
303-866-4667
Matt@matthewgray.us
State Representative Cathy Kipp (Democrat, Larimer County)
303-866-4569
Cathy.kipp.house@state.co.us
State Representative Stephanie Luck (Republican, Fremont, Otero, and Pueblo Counties)
303-866-2905
Stephanie.luck.house@state.co.us
State Representative Janice Rich (Republican, Mesa County)
303-866-3068
Janice.rich.house@state.co.us
State Representative Shane Sandridge (Republican, El Paso County)
303-866-2965
Shane.sandridge.house@state.co.us
State Representative Matt Soper (Republican, Mesa County)
303-866-2583
Matt.soper.house@state.co.us
State Representative Kerry Tipper (Democrat, Jefferson County)
303-866-2939
Kerry.tipper.house@state.co.us
Messaging
Dear Representative Last Name:
Thank you for your service to the people of Colorado. I am contacting you today about HB 1064, the statewide, vaping flavor ban legislation.
I encourage you to vote NO on HB 1064 in the State House Finance committee.
I am a small business vaping store owner in Colorado. I would like to schedule a time to speak with you in-person or by Zoom or phone to discuss the most effective public policy solutions that both reduce youth vaping while still allowing responsible adults to use flavored vaping products to quit smoking more harmful cigarettes.
Approximately 96% of my sales are flavored vaping products. I do not sell non-vaping products like the approximate 4,000 convenience stores in Colorado. If you remove 96% of sales from any business, the business will cease to exist.
There are many differences between responsible small vaping stores and JUUL. For example, small vaping stores do not sell JUUL products. Small vaping stores sell 50% less nicotine than JUUL products. Small vaping store vaping products are four times more expensive and four times larger so they cannot be concealed. If you examine confiscated vaping products from any School Resource Officer, the products will be small, discrete, easy-to-conceal JUUL products. Not large, open-tank, vaping products sold in my stores. JUUL's actions have tarnished the approximate 150 responsible, small vaping stores in Colorado who empower adults to quit smoking more harmful cigarettes.
Small vaping stores should be treated similar to marijuana shops. We want to be highly regulated to prevent youth from being able to purchase our products. We support public policy best practices to reduce youth vaping. These public policies include: additional licenses, increased inspections, and stiff fines for any store that sells to a minor. We also support marketing restrictions, requiring ID scanners and track and trace products, and only allowing 21-year-old consumers or older to enter an age restricted store to purchase flavor vaping products.
It is important to note that one, single cigarette contains 7,000 chemicals – at least 93 of which are proven carcinogens. A typical vaping device only contains approximately 12 major ingredients. Vaping products do not contain charcoal or tar – the two main ingredients that kill approximately 480,000 Americans annually. That is why 14, highly respected, domestic and international health care organizations have publicly commented about vaping being a safer alternative than smoking combustible cigarettes.
During the last four years, approximately 4% of stores in Colorado have been fined for selling to minors. These stores are predominantly convenience stores - not age restricted vaping stores.
Next, please consider the negative economic impact of a vaping flavor ban. Overall, the State of Colorado will annually lose between $75 - $100 million dollars of direct taxes and an additional $75 million dollars of annual indirect economic impact. Below is a list of economic contributions of a typical small vaping store:
Employs four to 10 full time employees.
Over 95% of store owners lease their space. Lease contributes to property taxes for the municipality.
Each small, independent vaping store conducts approximately 10,000 – 16,000 transactions annually.
Each small, independent store contributes between $50,000 to $80,000 in annual sales tax and pays approximately $80,000 in annual employer and employee payroll taxes. Small vaping stores also pay other employee taxes, such as FICA.
Next, it is important to note that youth vaping has reduced nearly 30% each year during the last three years according to the CDC and FDA National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS).
For example, in 2020, the National Youth Tobacco Survey reported that there were 2.8 million fewer American youth who used vaping products than in 2019.
The federal government, the State of Colorado, and dozens of Colorado municipalities have passed over 12 common sense laws and regulations (not flavor bans) to reduce youth vaping. The laws are working.
For example, voters of the State of Colorado increased taxes 62% to reduce youth vaping. The State of Colorado created a state licensing and enforcement system for stores to prevent minors from purchasing vaping products. The State of Colorado increased the number of inspections at stores. The State of Colorado raised the age to 21 to purchase vaping products at the federal and state level. The State of Colorado banned new retail vaping stores from existing within 500 feet of schools. The State of Colorado restricted advertising for vaping products. The federal government prohibited flavors in closed, discreet vaping devices.
Flavor bans do not work. Flavor bans make the problem worse. Please consider these negative impacts of a flavor ban:
Flavor bans shutdown responsible small businesses and allow JUUL to dominate the market with high nicotine products. My stores sell half the amount of nicotine as JUUL products. Flavor bans do not solve the youth vaping issue. The CDC & FDA National Youth Tobacco annual surveys conclude that curiosity, peer pressure, and high nicotine motivated youth use - not flavors.
Additionally, flavor bans will motivate consumers will travel across state boundaries to purchase flavored vaping products. An underground market will be created and products will not follow strict manufacturing standards. Consumers will return to more harmful cigarettes. Flavor bans disproportionately target historically disadvantaged populations (ACLU, Drug Policy Alliance).
A 2017 Yale University study concluded that “a ban on flavored e-cigarettes would drive smokers to combustible cigarettes, which have been found to be the more harmful way of getting nicotine.”
San Francisco approved a 2018 ban of the sale of flavored tobacco products — including menthol cigarettes and flavored vape liquids. According to a May, 2021 study from the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), that law had the opposite effect. Analyses found that, after the ban’s implementation, high school students’ odds of smoking conventional cigarettes doubled in San Francisco’s school district relative to trends in districts without the ban, even when adjusting for individual demographics and other tobacco policies.
Finally, please keep in mind that when the 2009 Tobacco Control Act was signed into law by President Obama, the FDA only envisioned regulating five or six, international tobacco companies - not regulating thousands of independent, small, vaping stores. Small vaping stores were created in 2009 by thousands of adults who unsuccessfully tried quitting smoking from the nicotine patch, the nicotine gum, pharmaceutical drugs, and similar products. For 4.6 million adults in the United States, flavored vaping products are the best option to quit smoking deadly cigarettes.
I look forward to visiting with you to implement the most common sense, effective, vaping public policies that both reduce youth vaping and allow adults to use flavored vaping products to stay alive and to quit smoking cigarettes.
Please call me on my cell to ask any questions.
Thank you!
Your Name
Title
Cell Phone