Stewart’s Shops President Joins Fight to Keep Flavored Tobacco in New York

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has presented a proposal that would ban flavored tobacco products in the state, a proposal that is now facing significant pushback from retailers across New York.

A prominent local business executive has officially joined the debate, strengthening the opposition as they fight to negate the governor's proposal and maintain business-as-usual.

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Stewart's President Joins Fight Against Proposal to Ban Flavored Tobacco Products

A story from New York Upstate shared a report that Gary Dake, president of Stewart's Shops, has officially entered the fray and is arguing against the proposal from Governor Kathy Hochul to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in New York.

More specifically, Dake has stated that he believes the ban on flavored tobacco products, like menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, would have the opposite effect from the intended outcome of the proposal.

In his mind, the decision would not decrease the use of these products by minors, but rather, encourage them to buy the products from less-than-reputable sources.

There are two sides to the coin to this issue, and that's what has created this debate.

The side that Governor Hochul is supporting believes that a ban on these products would drastically reduce amount of minors who use them, which would be a positive outcome for the entire state.

Then, you have the side that Dake and other business owners support, which believes that a ban would not only take sales revenue away from state-operated businesses, but also encourage minors to find black-market, back-channel nicotine dealers, which doesn't solve the current problem, while also creating a new one.

This issue is also being met with debate at the national level, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announcing it is proposing rules to ban menthol flavoring in cigarettes back in April. No decision has been made at the national level, either.

Dake stated in-part that his employees are specifically trained for selling tobacco products at Stewart's locations, and that the company puts an emphasis on not selling nicotine products to minors. In theory, if every retailer was doing their due diligence, like Dake's employees at Stewart's Shops claim to be doing, then the problem in the state would largely resolve itself.

More to come on this, as now that the Stewart's Shops corporation is being represented in the debate, there may be more of an emphasis put on finding a speedy conclusion.