The tobacco and convenience store industries’ attempts to stop the city of Denver from passing a ban on flavored tobacco and nicotine products are largely falling on deaf ears at city hall as the measure moves toward a final vote this month.
“To me, it’s big loud voices — but I don’t see the substance,” Denver City Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, one of the measure’s three sponsors, said of the advertising and emails those industries have directed her way.
The ban would prohibit the sale of nearly all flavored tobacco products within city limits, including flavored offerings for e-cigarettes, vaporizer cartridges and nicotine pouches as well as menthol cigarettes. It was introduced at the council committee level in late October, with backers portraying it as a matter of protecting young people’s health by making products that are already off-limits for them less appealing. On Monday, it will get its first reading before the full council.
Behind the scenes, some of the biggest players in the tobacco business have been working to derail the measure. The city of Denver’s online database of lobbying activity shows that lobbyists have registered this year on behalf of ITG Brands — the tobacco manufacturer behind Winston, Kool and other cigarette brands — as well as industry giant Philip Morris International.
Other recent registrants include the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, which has paid for advertisements in opposition to the ban on Instagram and in The Denver Post. The organization represents the interests of companies and individuals who sell supplies to convenience stores, according to its website.
In a Thanksgiving Day print ad, that association called out the Denver City Council and Mayor Mike Johnston, who has signaled his support for the ban: “Instead of getting bad actors off our streets,” the ad reads, “Mayor Johnston and the City Council are fixated on banning flavored tobacco products.”
Just how much those lobbyists are spending on efforts to sway city officials has yet to be made public. Financial disclosures for activity in November and December are due Jan. 15, according to the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office.
But that advocacy does not appear to be bearing fruit.
On Wednesday, the council’s Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee voted 6-1 to advance the ban for consideration to the full body. Following a first reading on Monday afternoon, council members expect to hold a courtesy public hearing about the ordinance on Dec. 16, followed by a final vote.
Observers expect it to pass — as it did once before in recent years.
Councilwoman receives dozens of emails daily
The lobbying this year has certainly caught the attention of Denver city leaders, and even officials in some neighboring jurisdictions. Denver also saw intense lobbying in 2021, when the council passed a similar measure only to see it vetoed by then-Mayor Michael Hancock.
But none of it has swayed Gonzales-Gutierrez’s commitment to banning flavored tobacco products. For the mother of three, the dozens of teens, educators and medical professionals who have spoken in support of the ban during public comment sessions before the council over the last month have carried much more weight.
“I think, in particular, kids coming is incredibly important because that is the impetus for this — thinking about young people having access to these products and just limiting that access,” she said.
She noted that the proponents’ side has its own coalition of supporters. Among them are the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, a registered lobbying group; the American Heart Association; the American Lung Association; and Donna Lynne, the CEO of Denver Health.
The most visible way opponents have lobbied council members has been through emails utilizing prewritten templates. Gonzales-Gutierrez says she is receiving 35 to 45 such emails a day.
Alex Smelser works on shelving displays of vape products at Cignot Vape Shop on Dec. 21, 2021, in Denver. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Sponsors have made good-faith efforts to work with local businesses, she said. She pointed to a change to the bill that exempted hookah tobacco in part because of its cultural significance for people with Middle Eastern and North African roots.
The lobbying effort has referenced the city of Golden’s ban on flavored tobacco and nicotine products that took effect on Jan. 1.
CHOICE — the Coalition for Health, Opportunity, Innovation and Consumer Education — ran a wraparound ad in Wednesday’s edition of The Denver Post that implored the Denver City Council: “Don’t repeat Golden’s mistake.” CHOICE is a nonprofit funded by Philip Morris, according to its website.
The ad refers to Golden’s decision to set up a $100,000 fund to support smoke and vape shops and convenience stores that lost revenue as a result of the ban.
“Denver can’t afford to make the same mistake,” reads the ad, which claims that a flavor ban would cost Denver north of $20 million in economic activity each year.
Golden Mayor Laura Weinberg was part of the unanimous vote that passed that city’s ban last year. She supported a similar measure in 2019. That one was tabled in hopes that the legislature would pass a statewide flavored tobacco ban, she said, but that never came to fruition.
Weinberg said the city had a history of using one-time grants to support local small businesses impacted by special circumstances, so the fund for smoke shops and convenience stores was not an outlier.
To her knowledge, two businesses that exclusively sold vape and tobacco products have gone out of business since the ban took effect. She expects impacted businesses that use the grant money to pivot away from a reliance on flavored tobacco products will be stronger after that transition.
Overall, she said, the ban has had a positive impact.
“I think it has been a win for our city,” Weinberg said. “It was a big ask from our community that we do this. There were real concerns for the health of the community — not just kids, but overall for the health of who we are as a city.”
Vape shop lobby is preparing for loss
Lobbyists working for independent vape shops are already projecting that Denver will adopt its proposed ban and are pivoting to efforts to mitigate the economic damage to their clients. They have sought to center responsible small business owners — a majority of whom are members of racial or ethnic minority groups, they emphasize — while keeping their distance from the big tobacco companies involved.
“There’s clearly an agenda, and they most likely have the votes,” said Joe Miklosi, who represents the Rocky Mountain Smoke-Free Alliance, a group of independent vape shops that has 25 dues-paying members in Denver.
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Miklosi has argued Denver will hurt adults trying to ween themselves off deadly combustible cigarettes. Now his hope is that council members will delay the effective date of the ordinance — from 90 days after adoption to a year out — to give business owners time to make plans for their futures.
He said a third shop in Golden was likely to close before the end of the year after losing 80% of its revenue following that city’s ban.
“People are going to lose their homes as well as their businesses,” he said.
There is at least one firm “no” vote on the Denver City Council: Kevin Flynn. He also opposed the 2021 attempt to ban flavored tobacco and nicotine products.
Flynn says his opposition isn’t driven by lobbying. Nor it is driven by studies and research around the health effects of these products. He knows tobacco products are bad for people. But he said he had yet to be convinced that placing a prohibition on products that are legal for adults is an effective way to keep them out of the hands of children. Colorado’s minimum age to purchase tobacco products is 21.
Denver police officials have told council members they are not concerned about expanding crime related to the ban, but he is, based on the history of alcohol prohibition in the U.S.
“All it is going to do now is lead to a black market, and it’s going to lead to trouble,” Flynn said. “It’s going to create more police interaction with our young people, and I thought our progressive policy is (that) we want to diminish that.”
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