Aurora City Council members voted unanimously Monday night to crack down on the sale of illicit drug paraphernalia and unregulated psychoactive products, which are “frequently” found in vape shops, smoke shops, convenience stores and liquor stores in Aurora.

Products included in the ordinance passed Monday are meth pipes, “crack kits” and small baggies often used for drug distribution, according to Manager of Licensing Trevor Vaughn.

These products are illegal for their intended use but are still sold due to gaps in enforcement and education about their use, according to council documents.

“We don’t want people essentially taking advantage of loopholes in the laws to put forward substances that are harmful to the people in our community,” Councilmember Alison Coombs, who sponsored the ordinance, said Monday night.

While drugs that are legal have a lot of oversight and regulation, it’s the council’s responsibility to ban on unregulated products, Coombs said in a previous study session.

The ordinance also includes certain mushrooms that are psychoactive but do not contain psilocybin and canisters of nitrous oxide, often sold with balloons for inhalation.

Amanita muscaria is a hallucinogenic mushroom that does not contain psilocybin, according to council documents. They are considered adulterated and subject to removal by the State Health Department, but the regulations are not enforced at a retail level. Others include “mad honey” and hemp-derived THC.

Following the passage of the ordinance, new language will be adopted into Aurora City Code to target what council documents call “gray-market” products. It also allows city officials to have a clear legal mechanism for addressing future psychoactive products not currently covered under existing laws.

Consolidating the regulations on such products into city code will help the licensing department enforce the rules, Vaughn said. It also allows the products to be seized.

Also Monday night, councilmembers voted 6-5 to continue with video-conference council meetings, despite several people during public comments asking them to go back to in-person meetings. 

The council voted at a meeting in June to meet via video conference and get rid of public comment until there is an official ruling from the court in the Kilyn Lewis shooting case.

A lawsuit on behalf of the Lewis family was filed at the end of May against Aurora Police Department SWAT Officer Michael Dieck and the City of Aurora, alleging wrongful death. Civil cases can often take a year, or longer. 

The shooting was ruled justified by the district attorney, and Dieck was cleared by APD internal investigators. 

Councilmember Coombs said the council has agreed that in-person meetings are more effective and put forward a motion to go back in-person for the next meeting.

Councilmember Stephanie Hancock agreed that in-person meetings are effective, but said the public is able to reach councilmembers at any time if they so desire.

“It is important, however, that when people come into this council chambers … they need to be reminded of the respect that is due to the office whether they like us or not,” Hancock. 

The Coombs motion did not pass with “no” votes from councilmembers Angela Lawson, Amsalu Kassaw, Francoise Bergan, Danielle Jurinsky, Curtis Gardner and Steve Sundberg.