Youth Advisory Commission urges flavored-nicotine ban; Oregon City directs staff to draft resolution and research local ban

The Oregon City Youth Advisory Commission asked the City Commission on Jan. 7 to support banning flavored nicotine products to reduce youth nicotine addiction. The City Commission voted unanimously to direct staff to draft a resolution urging Clackamas County to ban flavored nicotine products and to research the legal pathway for a possible city-level ban.

Hannah Schmidt, community engagement specialist and liaison to the Youth Advisory Commission, introduced the request and said the youth commission made youth nicotine prevention one of its 2024–25 priorities. Julian (Youth Advisory Commission chair) told the commission he requested the resolution "to protect the youth of Oregon City from a lifetime of nicotine dependence" and said he sees youth nicotine use at his high school.

Commissioners discussed the scope of a ban. Several speakers recommended including synthetic disposable nicotine products as well as flavored tobacco items. Julian told commissioners that "a majority of" youth nicotine use he has seen comes from disposable synthetic products and estimated that about 85% of youth usage is from those disposables rather than traditional tobacco.

The city attorney cautioned that the city needed to confirm legal authority and said, "I would need to look into it, but I believe that you can ban it. But I need to look into it to see exactly how we would go about doing it." Commissioners agreed to a two-part approach: (1) ask staff to draft a resolution for the commission to send to Clackamas County urging a countywide ban, and (2) ask staff and the city attorney to research whether Oregon City can adopt its own ban and what form that would take.

Commissioners also discussed enforcement concerns. A youth commissioner noted that under current practice fines fall on the licensed business rather than the individual salesperson, and suggested that legal enforcement and compliance checks (for example, sting operations) may be necessary if flavored products remain legally available.

The formal motion directing staff to prepare the resolution and research city options was moved and seconded and approved by unanimous vote. Commissioners requested that staff return with draft materials at a future meeting.

Because the commission asked staff to research legal authority, no city ban was adopted at this meeting; the action was a staff directive to produce a draft resolution and a legal analysis for the commission to consider later.