A bill sponsored by both North Coast lawmakers that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco was yanked from consideration by the bill’s author before it could come to a vote on the floor of the state Senate.
Senate Bill 38, authored by Sen.Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), was pulled because of some amendments added to the bill.
“I introduced Senate Bill 38 to protect young people from the dangerous health risks of tobacco products in any form and to prevent another generation from becoming addicted to nicotine,” Hill said in a prepared statement. “The aim was to prohibit tobacco products with fruit, candy and other flavors that entice young people from being sold in stores. The amendments imposed on the bill erode those protections by creating unnecessary, harmful exemptions.”
The bill was introduced to counter the increasing number of youth smokers, many of whom picked up the habit after youth-friendly flavors of nicotine were marketed such as bubble gum and gummy bear.
The amendments that soured the bill for Hill were tacked on by the Senate Appropriations Committee. As a result of the amendments, several groups pulled support of the bill.
The American Lung Association in California, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network withdrew their sponsorship and penned a letter opposing the new version of the bill.
“Exempting hookah products set a terrible precedent and undermine the foundation of the original legislation to protect youth, low income and minority communities from flavored tobacco,” the organizations wrote in a letter to Hill.
Both Assemblyman Jim Wood and Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) has signed on as sponsors of the bill. Both previously spoke of deterring youth from picking up the smoking habit.
“We know that stopping young people from ever picking up a tobacco product is the most effective way to keep them from smoking or vaping later in life,” McGuire said in a news release issued in March when the bill cleared the Senate Health Committee.
“The use of e-cigarettes by teens grew exponentially in 2018,” said Wood (D-Santa Rosa) in a statement. “When e-cigarettes, which were developed to help people stop smoking, are now being used to introduce addictive vaping to teenagers, that’s outrageous.”
Neither Wood nor McGuire could be reached for comment with state offices closed Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.
Ruth Schneider can be reached at 707-441-0520.
