[3] In 1871 the Dr. Henry King Steele led an initiative to establish a state medical society.
Dr. Frederick J. Bancroft, the Denver city physician, estimated in 1872 that due to the prevalence of prostitution, "probably every third man who reaches the age of twenty-five has acquired .
Bancroft, with the Denver Medical Association, advocated licensing, stipulation of allowed services, and testing and examinations of the city's prostitutes.
In 1875, the Denver Medical Association's physicians decided that management of prostitutes was a solely a police matter.
Bancroft continued to advocate a licensing system, as well as making abortion an attempted murder crime.
Denver, though, was not ready to relinquish its "sex-drugs-and-gambling lifestyle" from the gold rush days.
[6] He stated in a couple of annual reports that the contamination is a significant public health issue and could result in typhus[6] and tuberculosis epidemic,[7][b] he cautioned the city council.