Richmond Heights City Council placed a six-month moratorium July 23 on new building permits that would allow the sale of vaping and e-cigarette products. Under the moratorium existing businesses would not be permitted to start the sale of vaping products.
“There is a concern, a very real health concern, not only for adults but also for minors and their ability to get these products, although in Ohio you have to be 21 to purchase these products,” Todd Hunt, law director for Richmond Heights, said to council. “We do have several establishments in town that sell these products. This moratorium will not stop them from selling those products, but it will stop existing businesses from starting to sell those products.”
Although the language of the moratorium cites research into effects that nicotine addiction has had on the younger population, it also says that council is placing the moratorium to “allow the city time to study the effects of such products on citizens and to determine whether the adoption of regulations relating to such products are warranted.” It was left unclear at the meeting if council is studying the health and safety effects of the products, the socioeconomic effects of the stores on the community, or both.
City Council President Bobby Jordan said the city is not planning on banning stores that sell traditional tobacco products, such as cigarettes, chewing tobacco or cigars even though they negatively impact health in a similar way. He said the goal was more to make sure the city is not inundated with vaping shops. He feels that would have a negative impact on youth and the general economic wellness of the city.
“We have one smoke shop on Chardon Road,” Jordan said. “A lot of times having these smoke shops, kinda in relation to the level of a city’s financial situation, you see them a lot in the poorer cities.
“I drove through Twinsburg and I didn’t see not one smoke shop, drove through Solon and did not see one smoke shop. Like I said we have one (smoke shop) and we have stores that provide items that you can find at smoke shops.”
He said that the city already has eight stores that sell vaping products, and he is concerned more stores would attract minors to the products.
“There are studies that show these vaping stores are saturating our communities,” Jordan said. “There has been a boom in these vaping stores all across the country… Not only are we stewards of taxpayers’ dollars, but we are also stewards of safety.
“We want to make sure that we keep being safe, and keep kids also safe, because the one vape shop was within 500 feet of a school. Kids find ways to get things, so now we have the police force sitting there, keeping watch all day, they have so many other things they can do.”
0 Comments