Stop Big Tobacco from targeting Colorado kids!
Recent Poll Results Show Support for Ending the Sale of Flavored Tobacco
About the Campaign
There’s a public health emergency unfolding right before our eyes — and the cause couldn’t be clearer.
More than one in four Colorado high school students use e-cigarettes. And while youth e-cigarette use nationally has declined from record-high levels reached in 2019, it remains a serious public health problem. According to the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey, over two million middle and high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the first half of 2021, even as many schools remained closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
85%
Of youth e-cigarette users report using a flavored product in the past month.
4 out of 5
Kids who have used tobacco started with a flavored product.
1 in 5
High school seniors report having vaped nicotine in last month, considered current use.
1 in 4
Colorado high school students use e-cigarettes.
The survey underscored that flavored products are driving youth use as 85% of youth e-cigarette users report using flavored products, with fruit, candy/desserts/other sweets, mint and menthol reported as the most popular flavors. Indicating the addictiveness of the products now dominating the market, 43.6% of high school e-cigarette users report frequent use (on at least 20 days a month) and 27.6% report daily use.
The main cause of the problem was Juul, a sleek, high-tech e-cigarette that looks like a USB flash drive – and is small and easy to hide, came in sweet flavors that enticed kids and delivers a powerful nicotine hit. One Juul pod delivers as much nicotine as a pack of 20 cigarettes.
But Juul isn’t the only problem. For years, thousands of e-cigarette flavors and 200 cigar flavors lured and hooked kids. Today, many of the most popular products and flavors remain readily available, including the e-cigarette brands that have the largest market share or are most popular with kids, such as Juul, most Vuse products, NJOY, blu, Smok and Suorin. These flavored tobacco products undermine Colorado’s efforts to reduce youth tobacco use.
Tobacco companies also continue to aggressively market menthol-favored cigarettes to kids, African Americans, Latinos and other demographic groups as they have for decades. Youth smokers are more likely to use menthol cigarettes than any other age group. Menthol cigarettes pose a tremendous public health threat – they make it easier to start and harder to quit smoking. African Americans smoke menthol cigarettes at high rates and quit smoking at lower rates, and African-American men have high death rates from lung cancer. That’s why the NAACP and others want to restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes – because they hurt black communities especially.
Colorado can protect our kids by ending the sale of all flavored tobacco products, one of the most promising ways to prevent the industry from addicting our kids.
Latest News
FOX 31
Flavored tobacco ban dies in Senate committee
COLORADO POLITICS
POINT | Stand up to Big Tobacco
WESTWORD
Fight Over Flavored-Tobacco Ban Moves to Colorado Legislature
Colorado Politics
THE DAILY SENTINEL
THE COLORADO SUN
The Denver Channel ABC 7
1 Juul pod delivers the same amount of nicotine as a full pack of 20 cigarettes.
Fact Sheets
Reports and Resources
Partners
ORGANIZATIONS:
Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners
Pitkin County Board of Health
The Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities
Boulder County
STRIDE Community Health Center
INDIVIDUALS:
Honorable Barbara O’Brien
Honorable Elbra Wedgeworth
Honorable Paul Lopez
Honorable Ramona Martinez
Honorable Rosemary Rodriguez
Attorney General Phil Weiser
Alisha Brown
Bill Burman, MD
Carolyn Dresler, MD, MPA
Celeste Archer
Chad Morris, PhD
Cheryl Fleetwood
Donald E. Moore
Dr. Alex Marrero
Dr. Anne Keke
Dr. Robert McCaffree
Dylan Lindsey, Student
Elizabeth Domangue
Golden Ward 4 Councilor Bill Fisher
Justice Onwordi
Kelli Fritts
Kevin Marchman
Kwame Spearman
Kwon Atlas
Larimer County Commissioners John Kefalas, Jody Shadduck-McNally and Kristin Stephens
Lorrie Odom, MD
Lucila Tvarkunas
Maranda Miller
Marlon Barnes
Maya Wheeler
Mayor Jacki Marsh (Loveland)
Mayor John I. Clark (Ridgway)
Mayor Pro Tem JJ Trout (City of Golden)
Michel Holien
Nichelle Ortiz
Nita Gonzales
Norman Harris
Papa Dia
Paul A. Bunn, MD
Phillip Gardiner, Dr. P.H.
Portia Prescott
Tamra Koch
Trinidad A. Rodriguez
Scott Prince, Avon Town Councilor
Stacey Adimou
Susan Todd
Verónica Figoli
Wil Alston