Despite the Denver City Council in December voting 11-1 to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, opponents are now working to overturn the decision through a referendum, ABC Denver 7 reported on Feb. 3.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston signed the ban into law on Dec. 18. The law goes into effect 90 days after the mayor’s signature. Opponents already have more than 2,000 signatures, but will need 9,494 by March 19 to move it forward, according to the report.
Grier Bailey, executive director of the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association (CWPMA), which represents 2,000 retailers statewide and more than 250 in Denver, criticized the city for banning flavored tobacco.
“CWPMA opposed, with the help of all our supplier partners including RJR [Reynolds American], Altria, PMI [Philip Morris International] and ITG, law enforcement and community groups, Denver's effort to restrict adult access to legal products,” Bailey told CSP.
Yolonda Richardson, president and CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, issued a statement of the ban approval, saying that the Denver City Council deserves “enormous credit for standing up to big tobacco and taking action to end this industry’s predatory targeting of kids, Black and Latino communities and other communities with flavored products.”
The Department of Public Health & Environment (DDPHE) is the city agency charged with enforcing the ban on flavored tobacco products and cannot negotiate any aspect of the law with a retailer, according to the city and county of Denver website. According to the DDPHE website, “soft enforcement” will begin July 1, and “full enforcement” will begin Jan. 1, 2026.
DDPHE said that exemptions to the flavored tobacco ban apply to hookah tobacco. All other flavored tobacco products will be subject to regulation, DDPHE said.
It said the ordinance did not include language regarding retailer reimbursement for previously purchased products or future revenue impacts, nor did it come with a budget allocation for these purposes.
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