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Tag: Denver

  • Denver Flavor Ban to be Decided by Voters

    Denver Flavor Ban to be Decided by Voters

    In December 2024, the Denver City Council voted 11-1 to ban flavored tobacco products. Since then, a group of business owners led by Phil Guerin, the owner of Myxed Up Creations smoke shop, has been battling to have the decision on whether the ban should be enforced left to the voters.

    To push the matter to a vote, the business owners needed to collect about 9,500 signatures on a petition. Their coalition, called Citizen Power, collected more than 17,000 signatures. Today (April 10), the city declared that the petition is sufficient, but, according to Ben Warwick with Denver’s Clerk and Recorder’s Office, is waiting until a protest period ends Friday before formally notifying the city council. Warwick said it will then be up to the city council to determine the election date. The next general election is set for this November.

    “We are fighting David versus Goliath, and we are David,” said Guerin, adding that flavored products account for about half of his business. “I’ve been able to go around and talk to a lot of my competitors and bring us all under the same tent.

    “There’s already a ban for children. This is a ban on adults, and honestly, this is a ban on small, family-owned businesses. If we lost that business, it would be almost impossible to sustain after that point.”

  • Last-Second Petition Filed to Stop Flavor Ban in Denver

    Last-Second Petition Filed to Stop Flavor Ban in Denver

    One day before a flavored tobacco ban is set to go into effect in Denver, vape and tobacco store owners have filed a petition with more than 17,000 signatures asking to delay the ban so voters can decide on it in November’s election. Less than 9,500 signatures are required to get a question on the ballot.

    “It asks if the ban should be upheld and we are saying no, it should not be,” Phil Guerin, Owner of Myxed Up Creations and president of the Smoke-Free Alliance Colorado said about the potential ballot question. “Let’s let the voters decide. I feel like city council has made a lot of bad decisions when it comes to the economy and just the future of our city. We’re here to stand up for our city and stand up for what we believe in.”

    Vape store owners and manufacturers argued that city council members rushed the ban on flavored tobacco purchases as last year ended, and that the city will miss out on $13 million in annual revenue if the ban is upheld.

    According to KDVR’s Gabrielle Franklin, those against the ban would face major opposition, though, as “the City Council’s near-unanimous decision and signature into law by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to end the sale of flavored tobacco reflect the will of our community, with over 100 organizations endorsing the measure and nearly two-thirds of Denver voters indicating their support.”

  • Small Business Owners Fighting Denver’s Flavor Ban

    Small Business Owners Fighting Denver’s Flavor Ban

    Phil Guerin, the owner of Myxed Up Creations, a small tobacco, nicotine, and accessory shop that has been operating in Denver since 1992, is leading a fight among small business owners to send the city’s upcoming ban on flavored tobacco products to a vote in November’s election. Previously, the Denver City Council voted 11-1 to ban such products beginning March 18. 

    “We really are advocates for our customers and advocating for doing things in a safe way, and we’ve been able to really stay ahead of these trends,” Guerin said. “But we are not the problem, and we really regret being blamed for this whole situation and we are not big tobacco. We are family-owned businesses that are just trying to survive in an anti-small business climate that’s been created by municipal government.”

    Guerin said he is working with other small business owners around the city, and they have filed the paperwork needed to circulate a petition that would delay the ban until voters could weigh in. He says they have already gathered more than 2,000 of the needed 9,494 valid signatures for the city’s election division to deem the petition sufficient.

    “The greatest thing that’s happened is small businesses across the entire Denver city limits, we’ve all come together,” Guerin said. “Before, we were all kind of rivals and we were all competing against each other, and now we’ve all come together to really fight this misinformation and this ban.

    “We think this will be on the ballot in November and we’re excited for a campaign, and we’re really excited to inform the public because there has been so much bad information put out there about this, [it] is really big tobacco doing this. It’s actually small business people that are being responsible and really trying to do the responsible thing and give adults the right to choose an alternative to smoking cigarettes.”