OPED: Aurora’s embrace of Phillip Morris comes with significant costs

EDITOR’S NOTE: This column has been amended to make clear that the Aurora project is led by Phillip Morris International, legally separate from Phillip Morris Altria. Additional material has been added to address the distinction.

At an event that hearkened back to Big Tobacco’s 1950s heyday, Gov. Jared Polis, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, and other city and state officials and tobacco industry leaders toasted the announcement that Phillip Morris International will be building a giant International factory in Aurora to produce their new, highly addictive Zyn nicotine pouches. It has been reported that the city will provide more than $7 million in taxpayer-funded incentives to Phillip Morris for this project, which they say will bring thousands of jobs and tax revenue.

Seven million dollars in tax incentives to roll out the red carpet for Phillip Morris? The move defies comprehension for anyone who remembers this company’s long history of targeting the Black community, women, young adults, the misleading statements, and the carnage they are currently inflicting on the American people.

Do not be misled or fooled by staunch insistence that there is no connection between Phillip Morris International and the Phillip Morris rebranded as “Altria” and the historic corporation that grew from the tobacco industry and cigarette addiction. Technically, Phillip Morris International sells tobacco and nicotine products outside the United States, and the Phillip Morris “Altria” company sells those products here. Highlighting the distinction does not distance either company from the fact that they sell and enrich investors on products linked to addiction and ill-health.

Both companies were called out for their propaganda campaigns in the 2022 Stanford School of Medicine report, “Exposing the Hypocrisy of the Claim: ‘A Tobacco Company That Actually Cares About Health.'”

Former Phillip Morris executives lied to the American people, saying, literally, that “Nicotine is not addictive” before Congress. After decades of relentless marketing focused on minority populations and younger demographics, their products kill 500,000 Americans each year and are responsible for millions of deaths globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco and its forms are the leading cause of death, illness, and impoverishment.

One R.J. Reynolds executive infamously said, “We don’t smoke the  $#!t, we just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black, and the stupid.” They may not say this on the record anymore, but their disregard for the dignity of human life continues. 

Oh, but the tax revenue and jobs? These jobs will be tasked with preparing addictive products that will harm the fellow Aurorans whom they will target, and the case for the city of Aurora’s tax revenues is abysmal.

According to statistics from the WHO, the United States loses $1.4 trillion in social costs compared to only roughly $19 billion in tax revenue, indicating that for every $1 in tobacco tax revenue, we could be spending more than $70 in social costs like death, addiction treatment, cancer, increased insurance costs, and the myriad other harms associated with nicotine products. 

The industry says their new nicotine pouches, which deliver tobacco-free nicotine with child-friendly flavors, are “harm reduction.” We shouldn’t believe them.

Experts from the New York University School of Global Public Health warn, “negative health effects of… nicotine pouches include gastrointestinal symptoms, like nausea, gum soreness, and ulcers, and also some cardiovascular risks like elevated heart rate…We don’t know the full safety profile yet.” And, it would be wise to recall from the 1980s the number of mouth, gum, and throat cancer cases caused by chewing tobacco products like Skoal and Copenhagen, both once produced by Phillip Morris.

One study last year indicated the additives the industry is putting in these nicotine pouches could be even more harmful. Additives? Where have we heard that before? Perhaps with Phillip Morris’ flagship product, the cigarette, where the additives are responsible for so many of the tobacco-related deaths.

Phillip Morris told the New York Post that this facility will help them meet the national demand for these products. This facility is about much more than Aurora; it’s about allowing the tobacco industry to saturate the market with its new addictive products. It is, therefore, not in the best interests of Aurora or America for city officials to pave the roads in gold for Phillip Morris to unleash their new mass-harm product.

The City of Aurora recently made a positive step forward by announcing an innovative new project to help treat and deal with addiction and homelessness. They clearly take addiction seriously. That makes this announcement confusing since this project will significantly counteract these gains by creating more addiction and health care issues. Some in recovery report that nicotine pouch-type products started them on their journey toward addiction to cigarettes and other mind-altering substances.

Polis, when asked about the growing pushback to this Phillip Morris project, said because these products are “legal,” they provide “good jobs.” Why does Denver get investment from technology companies, AI, healthcare, and beyond, and Aurora is given the vice industries? Aurorans have always, and even more so now, deserved better.

I grew up in Aurora, attending Overland High School. I worked with former city council members Molly Markert and Ryan Frazier to keep adult store operators from targeting our schools. It seems every shady, community-harming, anti-family product and concept is pushed on this city.

Our citizens deserve truly good jobs that solve America’s problems and help families prosper, not addict them and shorten their life expectancy. The city of Aurora should reverse course and reject Big Tobacco’s lies with this project, which could have a fateful impact on the rest of the country.

Luke Niforatos was raised in Aurora and now resides in Highlands Ranch. He is the Executive Vice President of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions.