Colorado Highlights

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States and in Colorado. To address this enormous toll, the American Lung Association calls for the following actions to be taken by Colorado's elected officials:

2024 brought several tobacco control policy developments throughout the year. With strong pressure from tobacco industry lobbyists and their allies, the legislature failed to pass a bill to clarify county commissioners’ authority on local tobacco regulation. Despite objections raised by public health advocates, another unrelated piece of legislation was amended to permit the tobacco industry to begin organizing tobacco festivals around the state. One positive legislative outcome was the defeat of a bill that would have given a permanent tax cut to the cigar industry.

Colorado legislators should also be applauded for blocking an attempt from tobacco product manufacturers to create a state registry of e-cigarette products based on U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pre-market tobacco application status where products could potentially be sold without FDA authorization. Similar industry-sponsored legislation popped up throughout the country in 2024.

After historic court settlements between states’ attorneys general and Juul Labs for their part in driving the youth vaping epidemic, this year Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the distribution of grants to support local health departments, schools, and community non-profits as they deal with the lasting effects.

In a troubling development for public health, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, the city of Aurora, and Adams County announced nearly $16 million in combined tax incentives for the tobacco giant Philip Morris International. The corporation plans to produce its brand of flavored nicotine pouches in Aurora, Colorado. Evidence is showing Philip Morris International and other tobacco manufacturers are already beginning the strategies they learned from Juul and other e-cigarettes to boost sales and addict new users to their new nicotine pouches.

In December 2024, Governor Polis rescinded two executive orders that prohibited smoking and vaping, and the sale of all tobacco products, in all buildings and on all grounds owned or leased by the State, under control of the executive branch. Although the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act codified the indoor smokefree air protections included in the executive orders, the Governor’s actions left gaps for smokefree grounds and sales of tobacco products on state property.

At the local level, Denver City Council voted 11-1 and Mayor Mike Johnston signed into law a bill to end the sale of flavored tobacco products. The city joined seven others in Colorado, and nearly 300 others across the country. The new law prohibits retailers from selling menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars and chew, and all flavored e-cigarettes. The new law comes after former Mayor Michael Hancock vetoed a previous attempt by City Council in 2021. Several other localities had success in enacting stronger tobacco control policies in 2024:

• Keystone: Tobacco retail licensure;

• La Junta: Tobacco retail licensure;

• Leadville: Tobacco retail licensure with a cap limiting total number of licenses to 6; and

• Lake County: Tobacco retail licensure with a cap limiting total number of licenses to 8.

In 2025, the Lung Association will continue to advocate for Colorado policymakers to enact policies that reduce the burden of tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke in our state.