Vote Yes on Amendment 72

My mother was a lifelong smoker. My sister and I used to hide her cigarettes, tossing cartons down the laundry chute or stuffing them in the trash.

I’m proud of my mom for quitting, but I’ve known too many people who never could. Smoking is the number-one cause of preventable death in Colorado, killing more than 5,000 Coloradans each year. That’s more than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.

The best ways to reduce the death toll from smoking are to stop people from starting and to help them quit. That’s exactly what Amendment 72 will do, by raising the price of cigarettes and investing the resulting revenue in tobacco prevention and cessation efforts, medical research, and community health programs.

Colorado’s tobacco tax has fallen behind that of most states, which is one of the reasons we saw an increase in cigarette sales last year. Amendment 72 will reverse that trend. Read more…