California Senator Introduces Bill to Ban All Flavored Tobacco Products
A bill seeking to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products was introduced in the California State Senate on Monday, filed with bipartisan support from more than 30 legislators, including Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis.
SB 793 is more restrictive than a recently proposed federal ban on flavored e-cigarette products, prohibiting the sale of all flavored tobacco products including cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco and hookah tobacco, with no exceptions. “Flavored tobacco products are the gateway to nicotine addiction,” said Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, who authored SB 793 with 29 senators and assemblymembers, via a press release.
The bill restarts the process that Hill began in 2019 before ultimately pulling the bill from consideration in May after the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed an amended version of S.B. 38 that would have exempted tobacco products with menthol, as well as hookah tobacco and any product that had a patent prior to Jan. 1, 2000. Hill said that he thought the amendments were added to help the tobacco industry and thus undermined the intent of his original bill.
The bill has also garnered support from the American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network California; American Heart Association; the American Lung Association; the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Common Sense.
The full text of the bill has not yet been published on the legislature’s website, but Hill has uploaded an author’s copy to his website.
Patrick Lagreid
I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.
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