Greeley, Colorado Awaits City Council Decision

Despite being open just over a week, Vapor Core — Greeley’s first retail vapor store — already has a best selling liquid: peanut butter and dill pickle.

The concoction, made fresh in the store for use in an e-cigarette, is one of thousands of flavor combinations available to customers who are looking for alternative ways to quit smoking.

However, the future of the store is in limbo as the Greeley City Council decides whether to ban the public use of e-cigarettes. At a council meeting on Tuesday, council members agreed to table a second reading on an ordinance that would treat e-cigarettes like their traditional counterparts and prohibit them from public use.

“Basically, they would be allowed in your home and very few, select outdoor locations, “ said Assistant City Manager Becky Safarik.

A second vapor bar, Smokeless CG Vapor, 808 8th St., scheduled to open Nov. 1, is also at risk.

E-cigarettes, also known as personal vaporizers or electronic nicotine delivery systems, are similar to traditional cigarettes in that they deliver nicotine through inhalation.

However, they are different in that they are lit using a battery-operated device and emit a liquid vapor into the air versus carbon monoxide-filled smoke.

They are marketed as a safe alternative to cigarette smoking, and many, including the owners of Vapor Core, say they helped them kick the cigarette habit.

“We have a lot more control over the finished product,” said Devin Matthews, co-owner of Vapor Core, 3810 10th St. “We know what’s going into it. And carbon monoxide and all the other toxins in cigarettes are not coming out.”

Although Colorado voters passed a law in 2006 that bans the use of cigarettes in both indoor and outdoor spaces with the exception of retail cigarette establishments and cigar bars, Greeley voters took up the issue three years earlier in 2003, and passed more stringent rules, banning public use of cigarettes anywhere, including cigar bars and retail cigarette stores.

E-cigarettes are clouding the ordinance.

“We came up with the definition of an e-cigarette and treated it in the same manner as other cigarettes,” said Safarik about the proposal tabled Tuesday. “It is clearly a smoking activity that’s taking place. So we tried to include all the things that is part of that ordinance.”

Vapor Core co-owner Dustin Barnett said the city’s research was five years old and he gave the council several more recent research documents to read.

“The industry advances so fast that the FDA says by the time they get research done we’re ahead of them,” Barnett said.

Rachel Freeman, tobacco control program coordinator for the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment, said her department is not taking a side on the debate over whether to ban e-cigarettes. She adds that the Centers for Disease Control stress that e-cigarettes are not regulated for safety and health concerns.

“They are not submitted to the FDA,” she said, “because they do not know what it contains. There is no standardization. It is hard to say what’s in them.”

However, council members said they wanted staff to look at treating the electronic cigarette differently than the traditional version, specifically where vapor bars and vaping (the term used for smoking e-cigarettes) inside retail establishments are concerned.

Councilman John Gates said he could agree with the part of the amendment that would prohibit e-cigarette smokers from “lighting up” in places like restaurants, buildings and outdoor facilities frequented by the general public. But he didn’t like telling business owners whose sole purpose are the e-cigarettes how to run their business.

“I don’t think it is council’s job to prohibit someone from opening a vapor lounge,” Gates said. “If I don’t want to be exposed, I won’t go. It’s the same as a cigar bar.”

Being like a cigar bar is the problem staff needs to fix, because making vapor bars legal would likely make cigar and hookah bars possible in Greeley.

“In the aspect of second-hand smoke, vapor is still a concern,” Safarik said. “There really are some very specific things that need to be laid out relative to if you are going to allow vapor bars. There is not a lot of question there are some second-hand smoke problems.”

Safarik said the council can override the cigar bar ban — despite it being enacted by a vote of the people — with a two-thirds majority vote of the council.

The other council members agreed with Gates, which led to a 60-day window for Safarik and her staff to find a solution.

“I don’t like people coming into an establishment with an e-cigarette and lighting up, I think it’s rude,” said councilman Michael Finn. “But it’s not our business to prohibit other people who want to come in their bar. There is plenty of research that it can help people stop smoking. And the worst thing is to smoke cigarettes. If there is something to get people off, I’m all for it.”

Barnett said other than nicotine, the liquid he sells contains three ingredients: Propylene glycol, and vegetable glycerine — both of which are used in food processing and are harmless — and flavor extracts. The liquids are mixed in front of the customers so they see what it going into the final product, Barnett said, joking that their business is the craft brewery of the e-cigarette industry.

That is why being able to smoke on site is so important to Barnett, who currently has 118 different flavors and 27 more on the way that make up thousands of combinations. His customers have to be able to sample a flavor before they buy it.

“I won’t be able to operate without that,” he said.

City staff will spend the next two months researching what has been done in other communities and trying to come up with a solution for the council members who seemed intent on allowing the vapor bars.

“I personally would reconsider addressing those,” Gates said about cigar bars. “I think e-cigarettes should be coupled with (traditional) cigarettes for the reasons of carcinogens and second-hand smoke. But if I don’t want the vapors from a vapor lounge, I just won’t go. And I’m not objecting to revisiting the issue of cigar bars.”