Some Durangoans could drink more and smoke less under a couple of proposals floated recently by Colorado lawmakers.
One idea now dead for the year by Rep. Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, was to allow local governments to decide if bars could stay open past 2 a.m., including 24 hours a day. Rep. Elizabeth McCann, D-Denver, has proposed raising the legal age to buy and smoke tobacco from 18 to 21.
The smoking bill’s fate is to be determined, however, both concepts have intrigued local residents and officials, with opinions mixing like a Long Island Iced Tea. More residents interviewed for this story sided in favor of raising the smoking age and against extending bar hours.
Duran’s bill would have allowed bars and nightclubs to serve alcohol until 4:30 a.m. It was intended to help control rowdy crowds streaming into the early-morning hours.
Wild Horse Saloon co-owner Amber Morris wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, saying “usually nothing good happens after 2 (a.m.).
“As far as a bar owner’s standpoint, my doors will be closing at 2 regardless of whether they pass a law saying we can stay open longer or not,” she said.
There’s a visible police presence when bars start emptying around 2 a.m., said Lt. Ray Shupe, spokesman for the Durango Police Department. Officers break up any fights, check for people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and quell noise.
Durango Mayor Dick White, who lives on Eighth Street, said he can hear people headed home after bars close, especially on weekends, but it’s not too bad.
“You’ll hear young folks walking down the streets talking rather loudly,” he said.
Chief of Police Jim Spratlen declined to comment on the legislation, which failed early last week after Duran said the bill needed to go back to the drawing board.
Durango bar patrons Hayley Hollenga and Chad Oltmanns said they don’t party past current closing times. While Oltmanns liked the longer hours concept, Hollenga said she thought it would increase the number of drunks and fights.
“If you have to work the morning, who wants to be up until 4 a.m. in the morning?” the 24-year-old said. “It’s not like we’re in Las Vegas or another big city where I could see where it makes sense to stay open a little later, but I don’t think it would do much in Durango.”
Local elected leaders, unsure of supporting a later last call, said they would support raising the smoking age to 21 from 18. A recent Surgeon General report on smoking, released 50 years after the pivotal 1964 report, said the majority of the 42 million Americans who smoke were underage when they started.
“Kids get started, and some of them never stopped,” White said. “My dad started smoking when he was 8 years old.”
La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt said early prevention is key to encouraging children not to pick up the habit.
State Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, sees the issue differently. She doesn’t support the age change proposal.
“I just think that once you’re 18, you’re an adult,” she said. “I just think that when somebody’s of age to serve their country and get married and all those other things, we need them to make some of their own decisions.”
It’s a decision Kyle Riley, 21, regrets. He picked up smoking when he was 18, and said if the legal age was higher, maybe he wouldn’t have.
“I hate myself for it,” he said. “When I came to college, I was surrounded by kids who smoked, and that’s like the first time I ever smoked a cigarette. I was just out there to be cool.”
The legislation currently is in the House Finance Committee. Raising the age limit to smoke is estimated to cost the state about $1.8 million for the next fiscal year and about $5.5 million in 2016. The money helps to pay for some state medical and education programs.
smueller@durangoherald.com
