CLEVELAND — Regulating tobacco and flavored vape products will soon be in the hands of the state, after the Ohio General Assembly voted this week to override Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of the bill.
The move impacts cities across Northeast Ohio who already have or are working on regulating the industry, including flavored products.
"There's an epidemic in Ohio of children vaping," Brunswick Vice Mayor and City Council President Nick Hanek said. "I can tell you there are teenagers right now that are watching what the legislature did and saying, 'I don't understand this. I'm sick of the vaping! I'm a kid. I know better.'"
Brunswick recently placed a moratorium on new shops selling tobacco products in order to create a tobacco licensing system that would add safeguards to protect kids.
"I agree wholeheartedly with Gov. DeWine. I think children are a priority in this state. I think these are predatory products to children," Hanek added. "I'm not sure where we're left at with some of those things at this point."
The new law bans municipalities from unilaterally being able to regulate tobacco products and restrict flavored vape products. Supporters cited a desire to protect the rights of businesses.
"This will have a positive impact on our retailers," state Sen. George F. Lang (R-West Chester) said. "We must keep the cost and complexity low for those businesses that choose Ohio."
However, Cleveland Public Health Director David Margolius called the measure "extremely discouraging."
"Again and again, policy makers who we count on to put health over profits are choosing the opposite," he told 3News/
Margolius says Cleveland has one of, if not the worst, rates in the country for smoking at 35% of its residents, compared to 11% in the rest of the country. Smoking is also the leading cause of death, disability, and disease in the city, he claimed.
Margolius says the new law puts a stop to his department's efforts to work with City Council to create a tobacco retail license system and end the sale of flavored tobacco products. He tells us 10 cities across Cuyahoga County rely on a county-enforced tobacco license system, but that system won't be permitted in the state when the law goes into effect in about 90 days.
"But now, the plan will be to work with the state legislators and work with the federal administrators and save as many lives as possible," he noted.