Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther announced his support Wednesday of a Columbus City Council proposal that would ban the sale of tobacco that's been flavored, including menthol cigarettes.
Ginther says the health benefits of a ban outweigh the hits city businesses are expected to take if the ban is approved. "Too much is at stake to allow tobacco manufacturers and their products to harm the youngest and most impressionable among us," he said.
Big tobacco companies and small retailers alike are making money off city residents by getting them addicted to a substance that causes health problems and will likely kill them, Ginther said.
"There's nothing, nothing acceptable about an industry that willfully preys on the safety and well being of our community to prop up their profit margins," he said.
City health officials say tobacco company marketing has historically targeted minorities and young people and most people who begin smoking do so before they're adults or in early adulthood.
"The strategy is simple, hold them while they're young, you get a customer for life. Well that simply cannot stand in our community," Ginther said.
Ginther said the city does support small businesses, but "we can figure out ways to support these businesses moving forward when they're not targeting African Americans and young people in our community."
Columbus Health Commissioner Mysheika Roberts said the issue is about health equity. "The bottom line is banning menthol and flavored tobacco products is a matter of health equity," Roberts said.
Legislative interventions on flavored tobacco are important, Roberts said, because flavors are used to hook kids and minority communities on nicotine. "And nicotine is very, very addicting. Simply put, vulnerable people in our community are targeted for addiction," she said.
Opponents of the ban say it encroaches on the freedoms of adult smokers and will disadvantage city tobacco retailers.
Ginther said he is working with neighboring municipalities to develop similar bans to give the city's efforts more reach.
Bexley Mayor Ben Kessler seconded the need for a regional approach. "If Columbus bans products and somebody can walk across the street into Upper Arlington or Westerville or Dublin, it does not do what it needs to do. So we do need to approach this as a region," Kessler said.
Kessler said Bexley banned flavored vapes, and is expected to vote next week on an ordinance similar to Columbus that takes the sales ban further.
A Columbus City Council vote on the ban is expected before the end of the year.
