TIME-SENSITIVE: Cottage Grove Retail Tobacco License ordinance - Monday @ 7pm

[Rob Dickinson]

Friends,

Please review the email below about an important ordinance being considered THIS MONDAY NIGHT at the City Council meeting to reduce youth tobacco use within our community.

Tobacco use by our Cottage Grove kids is a significant problem, and has been growing rapidly over the last few years.  We really need the proposed ordinance to help reduce youth tobacco use and to prevent a large percentage of our kids from becoming addicted to tobacco and suffering the lifelong health consequences of that.

It’s really important to have as many people as possible contact our City Council members and urge them to adopt this ordinance at Monday night’s meeting.  Email addresses and phone numbers are below.  And perhaps the most effective way to influence this policy decision is to attend the Council meeting on Monday at 7pm.

Thanks,

Rob

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SUBJECT: The Cottage Grove City Council will be considering a retail tobacco licensing ordinance at its next council meeting on this coming Monday January 11th at 7:00pm.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the proposed ordinance is to address the significant rise in youth tobacco use in Cottage Grove and its associated consequences of long-term addiction and subsequent disease and health impacts.

BACKGROUND:

The proposed Tobacco Retail Licensing and Sales Regulation Ordinance does the following:

• Requires tobacco and e-cigarette retailers to be licensed
  
• Bans the sale of e-cigarettes to minors
  
• Prohibits free samples of tobacco products
  
• Prohibits self-service displays and mobile vending
  
• Prohibits retailers within 1000 feet of public schools (grandfathering existing businesses)
  

Tobacco use is a significant problem in Cottage Grove (and beyond):

• The ordinance represents sound policy leadership and squarely targets the leading cause of non-natural death in Cottage Grove, Lane County, and Oregon.
  
• More than 7,000 Oregonians die annually because of tobacco use.
  
• According to Lane County’s Community Health Needs Assessment, deaths caused by tobacco exceed those by diet and activity, alcohol, drugs, toxic and microbial agents, motor vehicles, firearms, and sexual behavior combined.
  
• Tobacco use is related to deaths caused by cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease.
  
• 24% of Lane County adults use tobacco; 21% of them are smokers.
  
• Ninety percent of smokers regret ever having started ; More than 80% of smokers wish that they could quit smoking .

Youth tobacco use is increasing at alarming rates, making adoption of this ordinance more urgent than ever:

• 29% of our 11th grade students and 17% of our 8th grade students use tobacco
  
• As documented by the Oregon Healthy Teens Survey of 2015, overall tobacco use has increased by 50% for 8th graders and 70% for 11th graders between 2013 and 2015.
  
• Non-cigarette tobacco use has increased by 75% for 8th graders and by 91% for 11th graders during that same time period
  
• The use of e-cigarettes (or electronic nicotine delivery devices) has skyrocketed, with use by 8th and 11th graders increasing by 440% or more.  

ORDINANCE APPROACH: 

This ordinance contains strong provisions that are clearly aimed at reducing access to tobacco products by our youth. Restricting access leads to a reduction in youth tobacco addition which will help reduce our community’s cancer, cardio-vascular disease, and respiratory disease rates overall in our community.  These approaches are fundamental to our strategy of addressing the leading causes of disease and death in our community and region.

Prohibiting tobacco retailers within 1000 feet of public schools is well supported by scientific research as being instrumental in reducing youth tobacco usage. In addition, the density of tobacco retailers is associated with an 11% increase in the odds of experimental smoking among high-school aged youth.  It is important to prevent new tobacco retailers from locating within 1000 feet of our schools.

RECOMMENDATION:  Cottage Grove should adopt the proposed ordinance and take a significant step towards preventing youth tobacco addiction. 

HOW YOU CAN HELP:  Contact Cottage Grove city councilors and urge them to adopt the Tobacco Retail Licensing ordinance at the City Council Meeting on 1/11.  If you can, please attend the meeting (starting at 7pm) and speak during public comments in support of the ordinance.

Contact information for Cottage Grove city councilors: 

Mayor Thomas Munroe: ma...@cottagegrove.org or 541-942-2936

 

Councilor Mike Fleck: councilorf...@cottagegrove.org or 541-942-7302

 

Councilor Heather Murphy: councilormu...@cottagegrove.org or 541-942-3444

 

Councilor Jake Boone: councilorb...@cottagegrove.org or 541-653-7413

 

Councilor Jeff Gowing: councilorgo...@cottagegrove.org or 541-942-1900

 

Councilor Garland Burback: councilorbu...@cottagegrove.org or 541-337-3702

 

Councilor Amy Slay: councilorslay@cottagegrove.org or 541-942-5501