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Eagle County Commissioners To Vote On Tobacco Resolutions

truthinitiative.org

The Eagle County Board of Commissioners will vote on two resolutions Tuesday aimed at limiting the use of tobacco and nicotine products for younger users.

The first resolution would raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products, like vaping materials, to 21. It would also require licenses for retailers to sell those products. The second resolution would ask Eagle County voters to approve an increase in the sales tax on tobacco products to 40 percent, and to four dollars on a pack of cigarettes.

Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs and Pitkin County have also adopted resolutions on tobacco and nicotine. 

Eagle County Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney said this creates consistency, so young users cannot go to the next town over to purchase the tobacco and nicotine products. 

"We don't want [Eagle County] to be the place where all the youth come to obtain their nicotine products," she said. 

According to the 2017 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, 53% of high school students in the Roaring Fork Schools reported vaping nicotine. 37% reported they have vaped nicotine in the past 30 days, up from 21% in 2015. 

"For Eagle County, for the state of Colorado and nationally, it has become a public health crisis we need to respond to," McQueeney said. 

The meeting is open for public comment beginning at 10am in the town of Eagle.

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