By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Last Monday, the Northfield City Council heard a proposal by the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP) to ban flavored tobacco in the city and implement a series of other regulations around the sale of tobacco products.
Advocates noted the importance of the issue, citing a 2023 survey where 75% of Minnesota youth who have ever tried a commercial tobacco/nicotine product started with a flavored product. Meleah Follen with ASAP stated that while the group has worked for several years on lowering youth use of tobacco products, more work needs to be done:
“Too many youth in our community continue to use a variety of nicotine products and those that are using them are showing alarming signs of addiction because of this we are urging you to take action to prohibit the products that are appealing to Youth and that are overwhelmingly the first nicotine product they will try.” – Meleah Follen, of Health Community Initiative and Northfield ASAP at the 8/4/2025 City Council Meeting
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The proposed ordinance would have done four things:
- End the sale of all flavored and menthol commercial tobacco products
- Restrict coupons and promotions for commercial tobacco products
- Restrict the delivery sale of commercial tobacco products
- Raise the minimum clerk selling age from 18 to 21 years old
Examples of flavored Tobacco products that Northfield ASAP shared during their presentation.
Several members of the public spoke at the meeting on the matter, advocating for and against the ordinance. Pat McKone with the American Lung Association spoke at the meeting in favor of the measures:
“We need to do better than what we’re doing now because we’re in an epidemic I have never seen kids as addicted to nicotine with these new Delivery Systems as I’ve seen in the past 2 or 3 years to the point where they’re getting suspended from school 12-13 times a year and eventually dropping out.” – Pat McKone, of the American Lung Association at the 8/4/2025 City Council Meeting
Lynn Ziegler, owner of the Ziggy’s Gas Station, spoke against the measures and how it would have affected her business:
“So I leave you with this question do you really support small businesses that pay taxes in Northfield and support the community or do you want Northfield money to go elsewhere?” – Lynn Ziegler, owner of Ziggy’s at the 8/4/2025 City Council Meeting
Picture By Logan Wells/KYMN News
Picture by Logan Wells/KYMN News
While advocates argued that this would help lower use of tobacco products by youth, several council members cited concerns with the proposal, with Councilor Jessica Peterson-White stating that she needed more data to vote for the proposal:
“I am willing to recognize that sometimes individual businesses have to suffer in the face of new regulations and I think things change and sometimes things have to change but I think to feel like that was a worthwhile trade-off that would be really effective here I would need to see some evidence from other communities that have done this that it’s actually going to reduce youth e-cigarette use and I have not yet heard that” – Jessica Petereson-White, Northfield City Councilor at the 8/4/2025 City Council Meeting
Councilor Chad Beumer, argued that the ordinance would hurt small businesses and add to the inconsistency in regulations in the city:
“Responsible adults go in there to buy products and when they go in there to buy those products they buy sodas they buy snacks they buy many other things in those stores and that’s the impact that banning this is going to have on those businesses… I really have a problem with this when we’re sitting here having a conversation about opening up and allowing cannabis dispensaries here in town all of which will sell flavored products.” – Chad Beumer, Northfield City Councilor at the 8/4/2025 City Council Meeting
The Council ultimately postponed the proposal on a 6 to 1 vote and sent the legislation back for ASAP to further review and research. Councilor Beumer was the vote against the motion. In particular, the council stated that they would be interested in legislation that protected youth and did not harm the city’s small businesses. The council did not give a timeline or deadline for the proposal.
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