Denver’s Flavor Ban Deserves Repeal: Data, Not Dogma, Should Drive Policy

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Key Points:

• Upcoming Vote: Denver voters will decide November 4 whether to repeal the city’s 2024 flavored nicotine and tobacco product ban, enacted under Bill 24-1765 and set for full enforcement in January 2026.

• Scope of Ban: The ordinance prohibits the sale of all flavored products – including menthol, mint, fruit, dessert, and spice – covering cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, dissolvables, and vapes, with limited exemptions for hookah.

• Referendum Background: After Mayor Mike Johnston signed the law, a coalition of consumers and retailers gathered over 17,000 signatures, with 10,961 verified, forcing the measure onto the ballot.

• Youth Trends: Data from the Colorado Healthy Kids Survey show youth vaping and smoking have already collapsed. Since 2017, youth vaping in Denver fell 64 percent (17.9 percent to 6.5 percent), and youth smoking dropped 85 percent since 2013 to just 1.6 percent in 2023.

• Flavors Not Main Driver: Among teens who had ever vaped in 2023, only 19.4 percent cited flavors as a reason for trying e-cigarettes – half as many as those who cited social influence or “other reasons.”

• Adult Success Story: Adult vaping in the Denver metro area rose from 5.4 percent in 2017 to 8.3 percent in 2023 – a 54 percent increase – while smoking fell 35 percent (13.8 percent to 8.9 percent). This shift reflects adults moving away from combustible tobacco.

• Equity & Economic Concerns: A 2021 veto by former Mayor Michael Hancock warned of small business harm and regional inconsistency – issues the 2024 law still fails to address.

• Public Health Implication: Denver’s ban ignores real-world data showing youth declines and adult harm reduction gains. Repealing the law would align city policy with evidence, protect adult access to safer alternatives, and prevent the economic and social harms of prohibition.

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Next week, voters in Denver, Colorado will decide whether to retain the city’s ban on flavored nicotine and tobacco products. The measure, first enacted in March, has yet to be fully enforced – penalties and license suspensions will not begin until January 2026 – but its impact is already being felt by consumers, retailers, and public health advocates.

Promoted as a youth-prevention and cessation strategy, Denver’s ban represents a sweeping prohibition that disregards both the historic decline in youth smoking and the sharp drop in teen vaping rates across the region. At the same time, adult vaping has steadily increased, correlating with notable declines in combustible cigarette use.

On December 18, 2024, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston signed Bill 24-1765 into law, prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products throughout the City and County of Denver. The law defines flavored products broadly – covering anything with a taste or aroma other than tobacco, including menthol, mint, fruit, dessert, and spice – and applies to cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, dissolvables, and vapor products. While the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment began “soft enforcement” in July 2025, issuing warning letters to non-compliant retailers, fines and license suspensions will not begin until January 1, 2026.

The ordinance followed years of debate. In 2021, a similar flavor ban passed the Denver City Council but was vetoed by then-Mayor Michael Hancock, who raised concerns about equity, regional consistency, and the potential harm to small businesses. Those concerns proved prescient. The new law, while more detailed in scope and clearer in enforcement, does little to address the underlying economic and social costs of prohibition. Though it provides limited exemptions – such as allowing flavored hookah products – and offers a phased rollout for retailers and regulators, the policy still imposes sweeping restrictions that threaten small businesses and limit adult access to far less harmful alternatives to smoking.

Shortly after the 2024 law was approved, a coalition of consumers and retailers launched a referendum campaign to overturn it. Out of more than 17,000 signatures collected, Denver Elections verified 10,961 – just enough to qualify for the November 4, 2025 ballot. Voters will now decide whether to keep the ban (a “yes” vote) or repeal it (a “no” vote).

Supporters of the ban claim it will protect youth, but the data tell a different story. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS), both cigarette and e-cigarette use among Denver youth have plummeted to historic lows.

In 2017, 40 percent of Denver County high school students had tried vaping and 17.9 percent were current users (defined as having used the product on at least one occasion in the 30 days prior). By 2023, those numbers had fallen to 25.6 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively – declines of 36 and 64 percent. Smoking has virtually disappeared: only 1.6 percent of students reported current cigarette use in 2023, down 69 percent since 2017 and a staggering 85 percent since 2013, when more than one in ten students smoked. These trends demonstrate that Denver’s youth are already turning away from both vaping and smoking, without the need for a punitive flavor ban.

Even more telling, HKCS data show that flavors are not the main reason young people experiment with vaping. Among Denver high school students who had ever used an e-cigarette in 2023, half cited “other reasons” for trying one, while nearly the same share pointed to influence from friends or family. Only 19.4 percent said they vaped because of flavors – less than half as many as those who cited “other” motivations. This evidence directly contradicts the premise of the ban.

Meanwhile, adult trends reveal a clear public-health success story that Denver’s policy risks undermining. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, adult vaping in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan area rose from 5.4 percent in 2017 to 8.3 percent in 2023 – a 53.7 percent increase. During the same period, smoking fell 35 percent, from 13.8 to 8.9 percent. In other words, more adults are switching from combustible cigarettes to smoke-free products – a shift that aligns perfectly with the goals of harm reduction and disease prevention.

Voters should recognize that Denver’s flavor ban is not a health-driven policy – it is a symbolic gesture that punishes adults for making safer choices and threatens to reverse years of progress against smoking. Youth vaping is down, youth smoking is almost nonexistent, and adults are abandoning cigarettes in record numbers. Repealing the ban would not end Denver’s commitment to public health; it would strengthen it, by aligning regulation with reality, preserving adult access to less harmful alternatives, and avoiding the predictable consequences of prohibition: illicit markets, lost revenue, and, worst of all, a potential return to smoking. Denver’s citizens should vote to repeal the ban and support policies grounded in science, not moral panic.

Nothing in this analysis is intended to influence the passage of legislation, and it does not necessarily represent the views of Tobacco Harm Reduction 101.