The Tobacco Education, Prevention and Cessation Program leads Colorado’s fight against tobacco-caused death, disease, and economic burden by mobilizing organizations and individuals to work together to support tobacco-free lifestyles and environments.

The Tobacco Education, Prevention and Cessation Program and its partners provide programs and policies that are comprehensive, evidence-based, culturally appropriate, and cost effective in achieving its goals.

The Tobacco Education, Prevention and Cessation Program's goals are to:

• Prevent youth from starting to use tobacco;
• Help people who use tobacco to quit;
• Assist in the reduction of and protection from secondhand smoke; and
• Reduce tobacco use among groups that are disproportionately affected and/or at high risk.

The impact of tobacco on health and economic resources for healthcare tend to be greater for ten high-risk populations than for the population as a whole. In other words, smoking rates tend to be higher for these groups than the national average, leading to increased tobacco-related rates of disease, disability, and death.

The ten priority populations are as follows: African-Americans, Latinos/Latinas, Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, people in treatment for substance abuse, people in treatment for mental illness, people with disabilities, spit tobacco users, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community, and persons with low socioeconomic status.

Eliminating tobacco-related health disparities poses a great challenge to Colorado and the nation. Colorado's Tobacco Education, Prevention and Cessation Program joins tobacco control coalitions nationwide in their tobacco education and prevention efforts to try to understand patterns of tobacco use and consequences within these priority populations. By doing so, we can devise and implement effective strategies that acknowledge the special needs of these groups.