The Denver City Council is expected to vote Monday on the proposal to ban flavored tobacco products, diving into a battle that has been brewing over the nicotine merchandise for years.   

If approved, the proposal would make it illegal for retail stores to “sell, offer for sale, give, barter, deliver or furnish any flavored tobacco product or samples of such products.”

So far, the discussions of the measure among councilmembers indicate that most support the ban.

Supporters said the councilmembers should adopt the measure and put “health before profit.” Meanwhile, tobacco companies, industry lobbyists, and local businesses are pushing back.

Denver has been through this rodeo before.

A similar measure was passed by the council in 2021 but vetoed by then-Mayor Michael Hancock.

The following year, the state tried a similar effort with House Bill 22-1064, which died in committee and lacked the support of Gov. Jared Polis, who said the local governments should make that decision.

Supporters argue that the sweet and candy-like flavors in some tobacco products target youth, in particular, and serve as a gateway to more pernicious forms of substance abuse that ultimately costs taxpayers money.

“Smokers incur 40% higher healthcare costs due to the treatment of smoking-related diseases,” said Dr. Donna Lynne, CEO of Denver Health, in a recent committee meeting. “And that ultimately affects everybody in this room and everybody in this city, through higher healthcare expenses due to those treatments.”

According to city documents, the economic impact of flavored tobacco products in Colorado amounts to $2.2 billion in annual healthcare costs, $4.4 billion in smoking-caused productivity losses and $415 million in estimated Medicaid, a $772 per household tax burden.

Critics of the ban, meanwhile, frame the battle as a matter of choice. They point to a poll saying 48% of voters oppose the ban, while only 34% back it. They also cited another poll saying the issue is not a priority for Denver voters  — not one person out of 459 asked picked it as a concern, the survey said — and argued that that the city would lose $13 million a year at a time when the budget is tight.

In addition, the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association (CWPMA) and the Convenience Store Association have flooded newspapers and social media feeds with ads suggesting that the proposed ban threatens small businesses, will cost jobs, and increase crime in Denver neighborhoods.

Critics said they will hold a news conference at 5 p.m. Monday on the steps of the Denver City and County Building in conjunction with a special 30-minute public hearing on the proposed ban.

“The biggest crime resulting from the flavor ban is the increase in tobacco trafficking, the loss of revenue and the financial crime surrounding it,” said Rich Marianos, a retired assistant director with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Marianos is working with the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association.

Marianos said bans don’t work like most people would like to think they do. In fact, he said, they actually create a higher demand for the very same products purchased outside of the city, which are then brought back in and sold at a higher price.

“Kids aren’t getting carded by the guy selling out of a backpack or whoever they choose to do this illegal business,” he said. “So, it () doesn’t deter smoking; it just creates a black market where criminals are making more money off it, and the city is losing a ton of revenue.”

Marianos said he has trouble understanding Denver’s proposed new ban since is, if approved, it would reside next to laws that legalized formerly controlled substances, such as cannabis.

“I never in my career, never, arrested or put handcuffs on anybody that was under the influence of a flavored tobacco product,” he said.

Phil Guerin, president of the Rocky Mountain Smoke-Free Alliance Board of Directors and owner of Myxed Up vape stores, recently told members of the city’s Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee the estimated economic impact of the ban would cost the city more than $13 million in lost tax revenue.

The real problem, according to opponents, is not the product itself but those who make it available to underage users.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International — which funds the Coalition for Health, Opportunity, Innovation and Consumer Education (CHOICE) — states on its website that commonsense approaches to limit underage access, such as education, raising the legal purchase age to 21, and enhanced age-verification requirements, are working and helping to drive declines in usage.

Jodi Radke, the Rocky Mountains/Great Plains regional director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, is optimistic about Monday’s vote.

“At the end of the day, this is about protecting Denver kids and our entire community from the harms of tobacco,” Radke said in an email. “We also know that two out of three voters in Denver support ending the sale of flavored tobacco, so approving this measure will be something our community wants and needs.”

If the flavored tobacco ban is passed on Monday, it will not take effect for 90 days to allow the Department of Public Health and Environment to conduct an outreach to businesses and encourage voluntary compliance.