We’re re-centering our tobacco control work around health equity. We start from the critical realization that the progress and successes of the Colorado tobacco control program have not been experienced equitably by all Coloradans. Colorado data from 2001 through 2018 show that the populations experiencing the most tobacco-related harm are Black, American Indian, and LGBTQ+ communities, Coloradans who live in rural areas, people covered by Medicaid, and people with mental health conditions.

We will build on the substantial progress we’ve made with Colorado’s tobacco control efforts over the past two decades. Looking ahead to the next decade, we’ve developed the STEPP 2021-2030 strategic plan to move our tobacco control work forward.

To advance health and racial equity and eliminate tobacco-related disparities, we must change how we engage with communities and implement tobacco control strategies. Colorado’s tobacco framework for this decade calls out cross-cutting approaches that will characterize the work of the coming decade. Here’s how we will integrate these strategies by 2030. 

Counter pro-tobacco influences.

• Restrict tobacco marketing practices aimed at lowering tobacco prices, including coupons and price discounts.
• Increase the price of tobacco products to have a large and rapid impact on reducing rates of tobacco use.
• Support communities seeking to limit children’s and youth’s exposure to tobacco advertising within the community.
• Support local applications of U.S. Tobacco Control Act authority for local governments to regulate tobacco product advertising

Center tobacco control on authentic community engagement.

• Advance authentic community engagement and group processes that use community voice to direct evidence-based and innovative community actions toward reducing tobacco use.
• Dedicate funding to community-based organizations to build, share, and wield power to identify, implement, and evaluate evidence-informed, locally led solutions to decrease the burden of tobacco.
• Strengthen community partnerships and increase meaningful participation in decision-making throughout planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Improve data collection and stay on top of field innovations.

• Improve equitable data collection and analysis that centers on racial equity and populations targeted by the tobacco industry.
• Expand knowledge base of best/promising practices for improving priority populations’ tobacco-related health outcomes, including root causes of tobacco use.
• Build pathways to share knowledge, increase reach and impact, and sustain promising practices identified through innovative grants and literature.

Incorporate strategies to address social determinants of health that are closely associated with an increased tobacco product use.

• Support community identification of tobacco use risk and protective factors and community desire to implement interventions that lower risk and increase community protection.
• Promote social norms to make all forms of smoking or tobacco use unacceptable in public spaces.
• Advocate for using revenue from taxes on tobacco products to address social determinants of health.
• Build pathways to share knowledge, increase reach and impact, and sustain promising practices identified through innovative grants and literature.