A ballot fight over a ban on flavored tobacco in Denver has raised nearly half a million dollars. That’s according to campaign filings posted this month on the website of the Office of the Denver Clerk and Recorder.
Denver’s city council passed a ban on flavored tobacco last year.
It aimed to stop the sale of products that public health groups say can lead to a lifetime of tobacco addiction. Vape shops and the tobacco industry called it overreach and fired back. They gathered thousands of signatures to successfully put the prohibition before voters in November.
Campaign filings show the repeal effort, organized as Citizen Power!, has so far brought in around $328,000. That's more than twice the amount raised by a coalition of anti-tobacco, health and education groups, working under the name of Denver Kids vs Big Tobacco. The coalition has raised $143,000.
Top contributors to the repeal effort include local vape advocates and multi-national company Philip Morris International.
The company is building a plant to manufacture the pouches in Aurora.
The Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance has given almost $173,000, PMI contributed $75,000, Smoker Friendly gave $15,000, Swisher International Inc, which makes cigars, has given $12,500, with the National Association of Tobacco Outlets giving $10,000.
Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, a 501(c)4 nonprofit group affiliated with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, has given nearly $87,000 to the Denver Kids vs Big Tobacco Campaign. Health consortium Kaiser Permanente gave $50,000 and Brown Strategy, a digital campaign ad group, contributed $5,000.
Voters weigh in on the measure in November.
Editor's note: An earlier version of the story misidentified Philip Morris International as Philip Morris USA, which is the company that sells Marlboro in the U.S. and is a subsidiary of Altria. Philip Morris International (PMI) and Altria have been separate companies since 2008.
