A proposed constitutional amendment that could go before voters this fall would triple the taxes on a pack of cigarettes in Colorado, in the hopes of persuading more people never to start smoking.

The measure — currently dubbed Proposed Initiative 143 — would add an extra $1.75-per-pack tax to the 84 cents-per-pack tax that smokers in Colorado already pay. It would also increase taxes on other tobacco products such as cigars or chewing tobacco by 22 percent.

In total, the measure is expected to bring in $315 million in its first year, supporters say. Most of the money would go toward programs to help people stop smoking, research on tobacco-use-related diseases and campaigns to discourage kids from taking up smoking. But other chunks of money would fund programs for veterans’ health, programs that pay off the student loans of doctors who work in rural areas and programs that expand access to health care for kids and adults.

Jodi Radke, a regional director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said a tax increase is “the No. 1 policy change we can put forth to impact youth use rates.” She said Colorado would become the 16th state with tobacco taxes of more than $2 per pack.

“We know this policy works,” she said Wednesday at the launch of the Campaign for a Healthy Colorado, which is promoting the initiative.

The measure, though, comes at a time when cigarette use by kids in Colorado is at historic lows.

The latest edition of the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, released last month, shows that 9 percent of Colorado middle and high school students reported having smoked a cigarette at least once in the previous month. That’s down from 16 percent in 2011 and marks what the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which publishes the study, calls “a new all-time low.” The rates of kids who said they had ever smoked a cigarette saw a similar decline.

More concerning in the survey, nearly 50 percent of middle and high school students said they had used an e-cigarette or other vapor device, with more than a quarter saying they had used one within the previous month. The proposed initiative won’t affect liquid nicotine or other vapor products, though.

Still, the gross number of cigarettes sold in Colorado increased in 2015 for the first time in nearly a decade to 194.4 million packs, bucking a trend that first began in 2004 when voters raised taxes on a pack of cigarettes by 64 cents.

Mike Melanson, a political consultant for the Campaign for a Healthy Colorado, said the proponents hope that a significant jump in tobacco taxes will financially jolt people into quitting smoking or never taking it up. He said research on consumer behavior suggests as many as 35,000 kids could be kept from starting as smokers by the proposed tax increase.

The campaign is supported by dozens of health organizations and hospitals, including the American Lung Association and Childrens Hospital Colorado. Melanson said the campaign hopes to raise $5 million for the initiative. Supporters are circulating petitions and must collect more than 98,000 signatures by Aug. 8 in order to qualify for the ballot.