City council denies Up-N-Smoke license

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
With a 4 to 1 vote Monday night, the Benson City Council denied Up-N-Smoke the tobacco license it needed to open a vape shop on the north side of the city’s downtown.
Mayor Terri Collins acknowledged that there were other businesses in town that sold some of the products that Up-N-Smoke would be offering customers. However, she said that the shop would specialize in vaping products and would be “marketing those products in a more aggressive manner.”
Collins then asked for a motion to deny the license to Up-N-Smoke. Council Member Lucas Olson made the motion to deny the license with a second by Council Member Mark Schreck.  
Schreck, Olson, and Council Member Jon Buyck voted for the motion while Council Member Jack Evenson voted against it.
Vaping uses a device that heats flavored chemicals, including nicotine, turning them into a vapor that is inhaled.
Vaping products come in brightly colored boxes, have sweet candy flavors, and contain an addictive additive, Ashley Wubben, the State Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) coordinator for Countryside Public Health, told the council at its Nov. 2 meeting.
Vape flavors and colors are meant to be attractive to kids to get them started using the product while the addictive properties get them hooked, she said.
In Minnesota, you have to be 21 to buy vaping products.
Still, kids get their vaping products from their friends, have someone old enough to buy it for them make the purchase, and in some cases, their parents are buying it, Wubben said.
 
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