Denver has voted to uphold a ban on sales of flavored nicotine products. The referendum result dashes tobacco harm reductionists’ hopes of securing a rare reversal to the anti-nicotine movement in the United States.
On November 4, an overwhelming 72 percent of voters participating in Referendum 310 opted to retain the ban. This confirms that businesses in Denver will no longer be able to legally sell menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars, or vapes in fruity and other flavors.
The ban had been imposed by the City Council in December 2024, following years of heated debate (a ban was originally passed back in December 2021, only to be overturned by a veto from then-Mayor Michael Hancock days later).
But a petition from vape business owners and tobacco harm reduction (THR) advocates garnered more than 11,000 signatures, paving the way for a potential repeal. City officials had said they would not enforce the ban until the referendum had taken place.
Supporters of the ban, the “Yes on 310” campaign, included groups such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Denver Kids vs Big Tobacco. They made the familiar claim that flavors fuel youth vaping, although research has indicated that flavors aren’t particularly high on the list of reasons.
Michael Bloomberg, the anti-vaping billionaire, put a thumb on the scale with a $5 million contribution, which was the biggest-ever contribution from an individual to a Denver election campaign.
The “No on 310” campaign, meanwhile, operated with not much more than one tenth of its opponents’ $5.8 million total, raising contributions from the likes of Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance and companies in the nicotine industry.
Opponents of the ban pointed out that similar measures around the United States have hampered smoking cessation—with evidence showing that they can increase cigarette sales. The campaign added that the ban would jeopardize small businesses in Denver, as well as costing $13 million a year in lost tax revenue.
“Prohibition is and unfortunately may always be the default response to complex issues of substance use and dependency.”
But Denver voters came down heavily in favor of the prohibitionist argument.
“If tobacco cessation is the goal, vaping and non-childlike flavors would be part of the toolbox for adults on a path to quitting cigarettes,” Denver resident Art Way, a consultant in the THR space who formerly worked for the Drug Policy Alliance, told Filter.
“Prohibition is and unfortunately may always be the default [response] to complex issues of substance use and dependency,” he continued. “Hopefully, the city of Denver will take the election results as a mandate to engage the users of these now-illicit products with targeted cessation efforts. Hopefully they will do so with the same vigor they engaged in prohibition. Hopefully they won’t simply pretend the job is done and leave the issue to the underground.”
Ryan McKibben is the director of Vapergate, a business with four retail vape shops, including one in Denver. He said the ban means shops like his will need to close, as 90 percent of their revenue is generated by flavored nicotine products.
“We have been responsible, law-abiding, legitimate retailers for adult-targeted products for over a decade,” McKibben told Filter. “It’s a devastation to be part of the responsible business owners, follow the rules, and still get penalized in the end.”
Gregory Conley, a longtime vaping advocate and former legislative director of the American Vapor Manufacturers Association, spoke with Filter before the result was known, and had hoped that Colorado’s “libertarian streak” would see ban rejected, when voters decided “whether to hand flavored nicotine sales to neighbouring cities and the illicit market.”
“I’m sure it’s a disappointment to THR advocates, but what is important now is to figure out how to assess its potential impact.”
According to the American Lung Association, over 5,000 Colorado residents die of smoking-related causes each year. THR experts fear this number may rise, not only because of the loss of access to flavored safer nicotine products, but because of the message the ban sends about relative risks. They’ll be watching closely.
“It seems that the vote against flavors in Denver was decisive as these things go,” Dr. Raymond Niaura, a psychologist and professor of social and behavioral sciences at New York University’s School of Global Public Health, with a THR specialty, told Filter. “I’m sure it’s a disappointment to THR advocates, but what is important now is to figure out how to assess its potential impact on nonusers (especially youth) and current smokers.”
“I’m not sure about surveillance mechanisms that could serve this purpose,” he continued, “but perhaps national survey data could be of some help telling us whether this measure will, in fact, decrease youth uptake of tobacco and nicotine products, and whether it might encourage former smokers who use THR products to return to smoking cigarettes.”
The result is disappointing to THR advocates but perhaps not surprising. Similar repeal attempts in San Francisco (2018) and California (2022) also failed. Denver is now confirmed among thirteen other Colorado cities that have introduced similar bans, including Aspen, Edgewater and Boulder.
Image (cropped) via Texas Department of State Health Services
The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, previously received a restricted grant from the Drug Policy Alliance, Art Way’s former employer, and has received unrestricted grants from Reynolds American, Inc, which has been among Way’s consulting clients. Filter‘s Editorial Independence Policy applies.
