A marketing campaign group looking for to overturn Denver’s ban on flavored tobacco gross sales within the November election has far outraised supporters of the prohibition, marketing campaign finance information present.
The opponents of the ban, a coalition of Denver vape retailer homeowners organized as a bunch referred to as “Citizen Energy!,” raised $410,000 by means of the top of August, in response to marketing campaign finance stories filed this month. The marketing campaign group supporting the ban, “Denver Children vs. Huge Tobacco,” raised about $245,000.
In December, the Denver Metropolis Council near-unanimously permitted a ban on gross sales of most flavored tobacco and nicotine merchandise after public well being and youngsters’s advocates argued the merchandise may lure younger individuals into a lifetime of dependancy.
The council permitted the ban, which applies to any gross sales inside metropolis limits, regardless of heavy lobbying from tobacco corporations and vape shops. Mayor Mike Johnston signed it.
“I’ve seen firsthand how tobacco merchandise, particularly when launched at a younger age, can form a lifetime of wrestle,” Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez mentioned on the time.
Solely Councilman Kevin Flynn voted no, saying he didn’t consider the ban would forestall younger individuals from acquiring the merchandise since they’re authorized in neighboring cities and counties.
In March, “Citizen Energy!” submitted 17,000 signatures in hopes of placing a query on the poll to overturn the ban. The town verified that no less than 9,494 of the signatures had been legitimate, passing the edge for a citizen’s poll initiative — and qualifying Referendum 310 for the poll.
Contributors to “Citizen Energy!” embrace varied tobacco pursuits and vape retailer advocates, together with $172,700 from the Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance, a vaping business commerce affiliation; $75,000 every from the tobacco firm Philip Morris Worldwide and Altria Consumer Providers, which is a part of one other tobacco firm; and $12,500 from Swisher Worldwide.
“Citizen Energy!” has argued that the ban will damage small family- and minority-owned companies in Denver. In latest weeks, its ads have additionally targeted on the potential lower in tax income for the town, which is battling a price range disaster.
The group’s president, Philip Guerin, the proprietor of Myxed Up Creations on East Colfax Avenue, mentioned it has been misrepresented by supporters of the ban.
“I’m not Huge Tobacco,” he mentioned. “We’re advocating for vape merchandise, not cigarettes.”
Guerin mentioned that as an alternative of making a brand new prohibition for adults, the town ought to higher implement its earlier ban on gross sales of the merchandise to youngsters.
“Denver Children vs. Huge Tobacco” has acquired contributions from anti-smoking teams just like the Tobacco-Free Children Motion Fund, which has donated about $115,000, and from Kaiser Permanente, the well being care large, which has given $50,000. Businessman and former Mayor of New York Metropolis Michael Bloomberg has contributed $73,500.
Jodi Radke with the Marketing campaign for Tobacco-Free Children, which is affiliated with the fund, mentioned flavored vape merchandise are supposed to create lifelong tobacco customers.
“When the tobacco business makes flavored merchandise that style like sweet or makes use of gimmicks like video video games to attract children in, they know precisely what they’re doing,” she mentioned in an emailed assertion.
The Denver ban went into impact in March of this yr, however metropolis officers don’t plan to implement it till January. That received’t occur if voters overturn the ban within the Nov. 4 election.
Referendum 310 asks voters in the event that they need to retain or overturn the ban. The setup is totally different from most poll questions, since a “sure” vote would help retaining the prohibition, with no change, whereas a “no” vote would repeal it.
The election would be the newest — and maybe most definitive — episode within the metropolis’s historical past with flavored tobacco. In 2021, one other iteration of the council permitted a flavored tobacco ban. Then-Mayor Michael Hancock vetoed that measure.
Mail ballots will likely be despatched out to Denver voters beginning Oct. 10, and there will likely be extra marketing campaign finance reporting deadlines earlier than Election Day.
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