Oregon City Mayor Denyse McGriff is pushing Clackamas County to adopt a ban on flavored tobacco and synthetic nicotine products, arguing that middle and high schoolers are vaping in school bathrooms and sneaking flavored products away from their parents. The proposal has already stirred pushback from local vape shop owners who say flavored inventory makes up the bulk of their business and that a ban could push them toward closure.
McGriff and the Oregon City Commission sent a written request to Clackamas County city councilors and mayors asking them to push for a countywide ban on flavored tobacco and synthetic nicotine, according to KPTV. McGriff said moving the ban forward on a countywide basis is appropriate, and she hopes to partner with neighboring counties that have already passed similar restrictions. She has also said the county should work with businesses to help them transition to less harmful products, even as she aims to ensure young people cannot access flavored tobacco.
The effort builds on groundwork laid more than a year earlier. In January 2025, the Oregon City Youth Advisory Commission, chaired by Julian Guerra Molina, first requested a municipal resolution to curb youth nicotine addiction in the city's middle and high schools. Milwaukie's City Council had already gone further back in November 2023, unanimously passing its own resolution urging Clackamas County and the Oregon Legislature to prohibit flavored tobacco sales, citing state health data showing tobacco companies spend $115 million annually on marketing in Oregon, according to Your Oregon News.
Retailers Say Flavors Are Most of Their Business
At Paradox, disposable vapes and e-liquid or juice account for about 60 percent of total business, per the KPTV report. Clackamas County businesses say transitioning away from flavored tobacco products would be difficult, and local business owner Chris Woodruff said a flavored tobacco ban would hurt businesses and reduce customers' options. Local businesses maintain they already enforce the law when selling flavored nicotine, and they agree that flavored tobacco should not be in the hands of minors — even as they push back on a countywide sales ban.
Retailers elsewhere in the region have made similar arguments. Specialty vape store operators told KGW in December 2023 that flavored e-liquids and disposable devices make up as much as 98% of their retail inventory, warning that county-level bans threaten store closures unless neighboring counties adopt identical rules.
Court Ruling Clears the Legal Path
The timing of McGriff's push follows a major legal development. On May 7, 2026, the Oregon Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Schwartz v. Washington County that local governments have the legal authority to ban flavored tobacco and synthetic nicotine products, holding that the state's tobacco licensing law under Senate Bill 587 does not preempt local health ordinances, according to Justia Law. Tobacco retailers in that case had argued the 2021 law created an exclusive statewide licensing scheme barring municipalities from imposing additional sales restrictions, but the court rejected that reading.
The ruling resolved years of legal uncertainty that had stalled similar ordinances in neighboring counties. The Oregon Court of Appeals had upheld Multnomah County's flavored tobacco ban in April 2025, allowing implementation to move forward after the ban was previously stayed amid retail lawsuits. Washington County's voter-approved ban, Ordinance 878, was approved by 77% of voters in 2022 and carries civil infraction fines ranging from $435 to $2,000 for individuals and up to $4,000 per day for corporations, according to data compiled by the Oregon Coalition of Local Health Officials.
Youth Vaping Numbers Drive the Push
Public health data compiled by the Oregon Coalition of Local Health Officials in May 2026 found that 76% of 8th graders and 75% of 11th graders in Washington County who used tobacco began with flavored products. Statewide figures reported in November 2023 showed nearly 11% of Oregon 11th-graders used e-cigarettes, while roughly 5,000 Oregon youth under 18 try traditional cigarettes for the first time each year, per Your Oregon News.
Health advocacy groups have moved quickly to back McGriff's request. On Thursday, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network issued a statement endorsing the mayor's call, noting that smoking is projected to cause nearly 28% of Oregon's estimated 8,840 cancer deaths this year. The organization's involvement adds a major public health voice to a debate that has already drawn in youth commissions, city councils and now the courts.
What remains unresolved is how Clackamas County will actually move forward. It is not yet clear whether the Board of County Commissioners would enact a ban directly or send the question to voters, nor what transitional assistance or enforcement structure might be built in for retailers like Paradox that depend heavily on flavored products.
