Coloradans purchased 194.4 million packs of cigarettes in 2015 — roughly 36 packs for every resident — the first increase in nearly a decade, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports.
But the increase — 1.1 million packs over 2014 sales — is in contrast to the declining number of adult tobacco users in Colorado, which has dropped to a rate of 15.7 percent of the population in 2014, CDPHE reported in a press release Wednesday. Because of population growth, more packs were purchased but the rate of smokers dropped.
There were nearly 4.3 million adults in Colorado in 2014, about 668,000 of whom used tobacco, according to Colorado’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey. That’s a drop from 2004, or an estimated 690,000 adult tobacco users in a over-18 population of 3.5 million people, the survey showed.
Colorado collected $161.5 million in cigarette taxes for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, according to the state Department of Revenue.
“While we’ve made progress in protecting Coloradans from the toxic effects of tobacco, this increase in cigarette sales tells us there is more work to be done,” Dr. Larry Wolk, CDPHE’s executive director and chief medical officer, said in a statement.
Research shows that increases in the cigarette tax reduce smoking, especially among youth, CDPHE said, noting that Colorado voters approved a tax increase in 2004 from 64 cents per pack to 84 cents.
Yearly cigarette sales in the state hovered around 300 million packs, then dropped to 226.7 million packs the year after the tax increase and declined nearly every year since.
Studies show cigarette-tax increases begin to lose their effectiveness after roughly seven years, CDPHE said.
The state’s tax rate ranks 37th nationally, about half the national average of $1.60 per pack.
“Colorado’s tobacco tax initially encouraged many smokers to quit,” Wolk said, “and continues to fund our efforts to prevent young people from starting and help current smokes quit.”
David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or @davidmigoya
