Summit County Public Health officials have started pushing an initiative they are looking to get all of Summit’s municipalities behind: new nicotine regulations and product bans.

They’ve been successful in piquing the interest of Silverthorne, Breckenridge and Dillon officials so far, who have plans to move forward with potentially refreshing their own nicotine rules. County public health officials are slated to present the initiative to Frisco and Keystone at their respective town council meetings the last week of February.

With the help of Colorado School of Public Health — comprised of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado — county officials have drafted suggested ordinances for municipalities to introduce. Many of the proposed regulations aim to dissuade youth from partaking in nicotine. 

“It’s a well known fact that teenagers like sweet products … so a lot of the tobacco industry has been targeting youth (with products that have a sweet flavor),” Summit County government’s health promotion and prevention specialist Becky Peltier told Silverthorne officials at a Feb. 12 meeting.

Some of the proposed regulations for municipalities include: a ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products, a ban on discounts on the sale of tobacco products, a cap on the number of tobacco retailers that may operate in a municipality and restrictions related to proximity of tobacco retailers to youth-serving facilities like schools.

Silverthorne officials showed support for the regulations and town staff members say an ordinance regarding the regulations could appear before town council as soon as March. Town manager Ryan Hyland said “the thought is January 1, 2026, will be the implementation date” for the new regulations for Silverthorne.

Dillon town staff members say a public hearing on the matter is scheduled for March 11. Breckenridge officials showed general support for the concept in October. Town staff members said Breckenridge officials plans to discuss the matter again at a March 25 meeting and bring a code amendment in April.

Summit’s municipalities could join numerous communities in the Roaring Fork Valley, who passed similar nicotine rules in 2019, and Denver, where officials approved new regulations for the city in 2024.

Silverthorne’s finance director Laura Kennedy asked Peltier if there was any financial information regarding what type of sales tax impact nicotine-related bans have had on the Roaring Fork communities.

“We’re spending 90% of the nicotine tax revenue on the nicotine work group initiatives, and then we’re also using some of those funds for child care tuition assistance and some other grants that the town gives out,” she said.

Hyland said part of the intent behind the changes coming in 2026 as opposed to 2025 was so the town could plan accordingly from a financial standpoint.

“We were never intended to become reliant on nicotine dollars,” he said.

“I think the thought is that we have to do this to a certain degree, not from a budgeting perspective, but that that decrease would be great on one hand and problematic on another,” he added.

The 2024 Summit County government budget outlines the county anticipated collecting around $2.75 million in nicotine tax, which is down from $2.86 million in 2023 and $2.92 million in 2022. According to the county, these funds go to youth programming, adult and youth cessation programs and are put toward nonprofit funding.

In 2019, Summit County voters approved heftier taxes on nicotine, implementing a tax of $4 per cigarette pack, a 40% increase in sales taxes for all other nicotine products and a 10% annual increase in sales tax for four years. Currently the tax is at 80%. Additionally, towns across the county implemented rules changing the purchasing age from 18 to 21 before President Donald Trump signed a law at the federal level that did the same thing in December 2019.

Peltier told Silverthorne officials while municipalities have control over their own nicotine regulations and can implement certain bans, the county attorney has said introducing regulations in unincorporated areas of Summit County can get a bit tricky.