Tempe Swaps Controversial Flavored Tobacco Ban for Seller’s License

The smoke shop saga in Tempe continues.

Vape shop, liquor store, convenience store, and hookah lounge owners in Tempe breathed a sigh of relief Friday after the city announced that it will no longer target a ban on flavored nicotine products.

The City Council has been considering an ordinance banning the sale of flavored tobacco and vapes since August. But the proposal has come under fire for a host of problems: conflating the vape and tobacco industries, factual errors, its impact on Arab business owners and hookah users, and unintended consequences such as fueling a black market.

On Friday, the council’s Human Services and Community Safety Committee said it’s shifting focus toward “establishing a tobacco seller’s license and fees to ensure compliance.”

While a broad ban on flavored nicotine products is still possible, if it moves forward, the committee agreed it would adopt an “Indigenous, religious, and cultural exception” that wouldn’t infringe on hookah smoking, a centuries-old expression of Arab culture.

Pay to Play

Tempe is considering a $300 annual license fee with subsequent $300 fines for retailers caught selling to people younger than age 21. After three strikes, a business would see its license suspended for seven days. After the fourth offense, the license would be revoked.

Arizona is one of 10 states that hasn’t instituted a statewide tobacco licensing registry. Five Arizona cities — Tucson, Flagstaff, Goodyear, Douglas, and Cottonwood — have already established municipal license programs.

At Friday’s council committee meeting, 10 people spoke against the measure, and four spoke in favor of it, including Joe Yuhas of the Tempe Flavors Coalition, the group that inspired the legislation.

While the first draft of the ordinance came under fire for being accidentally racist, another concerned citizen, Carl O’Kelley, didn’t hold back his contempt for Arab people. He called them “ruthless tobacco peddlers” who operate hookah lounges and “Persian nightclubs” — although there aren’t any of those in Tempe — with the goal of “trying to lure kids, plain and simple.”

No hookah lounge in Tempe has been cited serving people under the age of 21, according to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Still, O’Kelley called pleas that the proposed ban infringes on cultural traditions a “scare tactic of shisha tobacco peddlers.”

Arab smoke shop owners like Juan Sayegh, who owns It’s All Goodz Smoke Shop at University Drive and Rural Road, didn’t take kindly to the comment. Sayegh told Phoenix New Times that the city council “really isn’t listening to us.”

He also questioned the motives behind the ordinance.

“Tempe is trying to get the licensing money before Arizona does,” Sayegh said. “All of a sudden, they’re so gung-ho because it’s all about the money to them.”

‘Children Are the Ones Breaking the Law’

Channel Powe of Flavors Hook Kids Tempe, an arm of the national Flavors Hook Kids coalition, urged the council committee not to listen to critics of a comprehensive flavor ban.

“Everywhere I go, I see young children putting these things to their mouths,” she said, referring to electronic vapes. “We want to put children first over profit.”

However, in a statement released after the meeting, Flavors Hook Kids Tempe said that “a licensing provision, alone, will not be effective in curbing underage tobacco and nicotine use.”

Matthew Bannon, who owns Tops Liquors on University Drive near Mill Avenue, said the idea of controlling tobacco to help keep it out of the hands of children is “paper thin” because it’s already illegal for people under 21 years old.

“There is not enough colored ink in any print shop to represent how preponderantly we're doing our job without oversight,” said Bannon as he wielded a gallon-size Ziploc bag full of counterfeit ID cards he has confiscated at his business. Operational since 2000, Bannon’s business has never been cited for underage tobacco sales.

Bill Annear, owner of Triton Smoke Shop at Warner and Kyrene roads, agreed that creating an additional ban when tobacco products are already illegal for people younger than 21 is putting a hat on a hat. He and many others believe the onus is on parents to teach their children the dangers of smoking and vaping.

“Children are the ones breaking the law,” Annear said. “If you’re teaching your child not to touch a hot stove, I don’t see you throwing the stove out of your house.”

Youth nicotine use plummeted by more than 50 percent in the last three years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth smoking is at its lowest rate in recorded history, the CDC said.

Council members Joel Navarro and Doreen Garlid, who co-chair the human services committee, will bring a new draft of the ordinance for discussion by the mayor and council at a future work session in April or May, according to city documents. The council will also hold another public forum on March 20.

Garlid’s assistant, Paul Smith-Leonard, said that the re-draft of the ordinance will “move forward with a tobacco sales license-focused approach.” The council is unlikely to vote on the proposal until the summer.

“This has been a very long process for everyone involved,” Navarro said.