As members of the City Council’s Safety Committee discussed some amendments, including changes to exempt waterpipe lounges and menthol cigarettes, a proposal to ban the sale of flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products in Denver came to a deadlock on Wednesday.

Committee members will have three weeks to deal with behind-the-scenes work and agree to take another step at the November 17 meeting on Wednesday—and the five changes proposed so far, before submitting them to the entire city review council.

Earlier this month, MPs Amanda Sawyer and Debbie Ortega proposed the decree, which would prohibit the sale of flavored cigars, e-cigarettes, e-cigarettes, e-cigarette juice, and mint. Items such as alcohol cigarettes and hookahs, hookahs are flavored tobacco used in Denver hookah pipes. Sponsors and their supporters argue that this is a public obligation and flavored products are used to attract young people and make them lifelong Smoker.

"The epidemic of youth smoking and e-cigarette smoking is the problem we are trying to solve here," Sawyer said on Wednesday. "This is an extraordinary problem. It has been declared an epidemic by surgeons."

Adults over 21 can still own and use these products, but they must buy them somewhere outside the city limits. Seven other cities in Colorado have similar bans.

Some members of Sawyer's safety committee disagreed with the approach they believed was too strict and could drive many small retailers out of the business.

"This is not done with a scalpel, but with a sledgehammer. We will influence adults and prevent them from buying the products they want," Congresswoman Kendra Black said.

The proposed amendments discussed on Wednesday include an exemption for premium cigars and pipe tobacco and another exemption for menthol cigarettes.

Congressman Kevin Flynn (Kevin Flynn) proposed the menthol amendment on Tuesday night after he said he had heard from members of the Denver black community that both agreed and opposed the addition of menthol products, which are sold to black people. The style of tobacco products. He doesn't think this is where the Council can let people make decisions.

The exception to the hookah lounge is considered the most important change for its supporters, as all hookahs are flavored tobacco. The practice of smoking water pipes in public places can be traced back to the cultural practices of many Middle Eastern cultures centuries ago.

City councillor Jolon Clark, who proposed the amendment, said: "As written, this smell (ban) will close all hookah lounges."

Earlier in the meeting, Clark proposed a separate proposed regulation that would make it illegal for hookah lounges to allow customers to smoke between midnight and 7 am. The 15 to 20 lounges operating in the city today can remain open after the bar closes at 2 am, which he said has caused some people, including the one in Clark’s 7th district, to become hotspots of early morning violence and other bad behavior .

The measure has been forwarded to the entire committee and is supported by the National Waterpipe Community Association.

“We support reasonable supervision that solves major issues,” said Rima Khoury, a lawyer for the waterpipe brand Fumari and secretary of the association, through Zoom. Khoury added, “Because hookah has always been flavored, a widespread ban on flavoring can have unintended consequences.”

Sawyer told the Denver Post earlier this month that lobbying efforts around the proposed ban have been intense. On Wednesday, she said that she and Congresswoman Ortega opposed an amendment that could "weak the value of the proposal."

Sign up for newsletters and alerts