Many of my members have voiced concern about the Aurora City Council’s tobacco retail licensing proposal. As the head of the Ethiopian Community of Colorado, EthioCO.org, I share, understand and support the city’s responsibility to protect young people and address legitimate community concerns. Retailers have long partnered with enforcement agencies to prevent underage sales, train employees and comply with evolving regulations. That commitment has not changed.
What is difficult to understand, however, is how the current draft of the proposed retail licensing ordinance brings together such a wide range of issues under the banner of youth prevention. The ordinance extends far beyond age-restricted sales to include matters such as loitering, nuisance behavior, unrelated criminal activity, food-assistance enforcement, surveillance requirements, and broad conduct-of-business standards. It is not clear how all of these elements directly relate to youth access, nor why they are being addressed through a single, expansive licensing framework.
During discussions with the City’s Business Advisory Board, retailers were told the ordinance is informed by data and studies. Yet when asked about specific, Aurora-based figures that justify the breadth of the proposal, retailers were told such localized data is not readily available. That raises an important question: if we do not have clear information about the nature or scale of the problem in Aurora, how can we know whether this approach is appropriately tailored or whether it will be effective?…