DENVER - Minors can’t buy cigarettes or chewing tobacco in Colorado, and it’s against the law for an adult to give either to them.

But it’s legal for those under 18 to possess or use tobacco products because of a loophole.

That could change, however, after a Senate committee unanimously approved a measure Monday that would bar minors from possessing or using tobacco and allow police to confiscate it from them.

Senate Bill 88, which heads to the Senate floor, would make Colorado the 36th state to ban tobacco use by anyone under 18. The measure by Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, also would penalize retailers who sell tobacco to minors, even unknowingly, and would require tobacco sellers to ask for identification from anyone who looks less than 30 years old.

Minors caught with cigarettes or chewing tobacco would not face fines or jail — anti-tobacco activists have said they do not want to punish children who, they say, are victims of advertising by big tobacco companies. Law enforcement officers wouldn’t have to take away the tobacco under the measure. That provision is a result of testimony from a County Sheriffs of Colorado representative who said mandatory confiscation could be a detriment to getting teens to cooperate in crime investigations.

Still, supporters, including a group of high school students who spoke to the Senate State, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, said they believe making tobacco possession illegal might stop younger kids from picking up the habit.

“I don’t think a big part of it is stopping (current users). I think it’s creating a stigma and stopping more kids from becoming involved,” said Dylan Burton, a junior at Nederland High School. “If you create a stigma around this . . . you will stop another generation from falling into this trap.”

About 6,500 kids a year begin smoking in Colorado, where $1.3 billion is spent annually on health care for smoking-related illnesses, said R.J. Ours, Colorado government relations director for the American Cancer Society.

Four counties and 47 cities in Colorado — including Colorado Springs — have a ban on tobacco possession by minors, and some have stricter penalties than those proposed. El Paso and Teller counties do not have bans.

In places without bans, little is done to combat youth smoking, witnesses said. Burton, for example, told how about 20 kids leave his combined middle and high school campus every day at lunch to cross the street and smoke.

Sen. Dave Schultheis, a Colorado Springs Republican who admitted to sneaking away to smoke cigarettes while growing up, asked the group of high school students if they thought this really would do anything to combat teen smoking. Some supported stricter penalties for kids who are caught, but all said they thought this would affect at least some kids.

“The problem that we have in the law right now is that we send a mixed message. It’s legal when a 13-year-old or 14-year-old or 15-year-old is smoking a cigarette right off the school grounds,” Tupa said. “So what this law represents is the state sending a message that this behavior is not the behavior that we approve of.”

The committee removed a provision that would have banned the distribution of free tobacco products or of coupons that holders can trade for free or reduced-price tobacco products. Tupa said he plans to reintroduce that part of the bill on the Senate floor.

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303) 837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com