OPINION:
Any one of my former bilingual middle-school students could quickly fetch the grim facts of smoking and tobacco in Colorado. Approximately 5,100 Coloradans die each year from tobacco-related illnesses, making it the state’s leading cause of preventable death, according to the American Lung Association.
Nearly a quarter of all cancer deaths in the state are directly attributable to smoking. For every person who dies, an estimated 20 more adults live with a serious smoking-related illness.
This costs the state over $2.19 billion annually in direct healthcare expenditures.
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Yet leading up to the midterm elections, when my mailbox was stuffed with political propaganda and my phone was being bombarded by campaign text messages, none of the candidates’ presentations ever mentioned the word tobacco.
Even my birthplace, Alabama, is progressive enough to be one of the 12 states to ban smoking with a child inside a vehicle. Colorado, a state that prides itself on its fierce love for both family and pets, should step up and protest to become the very first state to ban smoking in a vehicle with a child or a pet.
To the smokers planning a trip to Denver: You had better drive your own car, because every major car rental company here strictly bans smoking inside their fleets.
MIKE SAWYER
Denver, Colorado
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