{"id":3760,"date":"2016-03-06T01:14:18","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T01:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3760"},"modified":"2016-03-06T01:14:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T01:14:18","slug":"california-assembly-approves-bills-to-raise-smoking-age-to-21-and-to-regulate-e-cigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3760","title":{"rendered":"California Assembly approves bills to raise smoking age to 21 and to regulate e-cigs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"california<\/p>\n

The California State Assembly approved a bill this week to raise the state’s smoking age from 18 to 21. A number of cities and states have been doing this the past couple of years. I’ve on record as having a somewhat mixed view of this — 18-year-olds can vote, join the military and go to jail, but they can’t buy a pack of cigarettes? I get it that they can’t buy alcohol, but alcohol is an intoxicant.<\/p>\n

Again, there is a big, big push going on to raise the smoking age to 21, and most of the tobacco control movement is behind it. Maybe I’m behind the times on this. \u00a0 Whether I’m fully on board or not, this movement is gaining steam. The bill would prohibit stores from selling cigarettes to young adults between 18 and 20, but there would be no penalties for young adults for possession or using tobacco. I’m cool with that.<\/p>\n

From a San Jose Mercury News<\/a> story:<\/p>\n

Young Bay Area residents had mixed reactions to the legislation.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been smoking ever since my mom put my first cigarette into my hands at age 13,” said Juan Parada, a hip hop musician taking a smoking break Thursday in downtown San Jose. Now, at 21, he declares, “I know that each time I take a puff, I am killing myself slowly.”<\/p>\n

Yet Parada, who performs under the moniker “Young Manny,” said increasing the smoking age to 21 will have little effect.<\/p>\n

“Kids will find a way to get what they want — like getting an older person to buy cigarettes for them,” he said. “That’s what I did. That’s what lots of young kids do, and it’s just not that difficult.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess my response to that is … your mom was giving you cigarettes when you were 13? … no offense, dude, but your mom is an idiot.<\/p>\n

E-cigarette bill<\/strong><\/h3>\n

However, I was more intrigued by\u00a0another bill that also passed the Assembly\u00a0— regulating e-cigarettes. Much overdue, in my opinion. The bill would treat e-cigarettes as a tobacco product, it would ban e-cigarette use in all workplaces and would require people selling e-cigarettes to get a special licence. It also would make it a misdemeanor to sell or provide vaping product<\/a>s to people under the age of 21 (I like this part of it because vaping has absolutely skyrocketed among teens in the past three years.). It doesn’t sound that strict, but it’s a beginning. \u00a0We’re all still waiting for the Food and Drug Administration federal regulations for e-cigarettes, so states are having to pass their own regulations.<\/p>\n

These bills had been proposed in earlier years but got bogged down to a large degree because of lobbying from the tobacco industry. I found a couple of stories about just how powerful the tobacco lobby is in California. You’d be surprised to hear that California actually has one of the lowest tobacco taxes in the whole country — just 87 cents a pack. The Legislature simply will not pass a tobacco tax increase and tobacco industry lobbying is a reason why. California alone represents nearly 10 percent of the cigarette market in the entire country.<\/p>\n

From a Sacramento Bee<\/a> article:<\/p>\n

Major tobacco companies Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds spent $1 million lobbying lawmakers in 2015. R.J. Reynolds also gave $240,000 to candidates and campaign committees last year, while Philip Morris contributed $1 million, including $200,000 to the California Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Democrats who voted against or abstained on the tobacco measures received at least $26,000 from the two companies last year. In November and December, they gave a combined $35,000 to a ballot committee run by Assemblyman Adam Gray, a Merced Democrat who chairs the influential Governmental Organization Committee and voted against raising the smoking age to 21.<\/p>\n

The two Republicans who voted for the bill, Catharine Baker of Dublin and David Hadley of Manhattan Beach, returned almost $11,000 in contributions from the tobacco companies over the summer.<\/p>\n

In remarks to reporters after the vote, Assembly Speaker-elect Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, called the tobacco industry \u201ca strong force in this town\u201d and alluded to \u201cthreats involving electoral efforts\u201d against legislators.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exceptionally aggressive,\u201d Rendon said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both bills go to the State Senate, where they are expected to pass.<\/p>\n

A ballot measure to raise California’s cigarette tax by $2 a pack is being proposed. The last similar ballot measure (Again, the Legislature won’t approve a cigarette tax measure, so it keeps getting punted to the voters) \u00a0in California failed by just a few thousand votes after Big Tobacco spent millions to defeat it. However, this ballot measure is being proposed for November, when voter turnout is expected to be very heavy, in part because there will be another ballot measure to legalize pot in California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The California State Assembly approved a bill this week to raise the state’s smoking age from 18 to 21. A number of cities and states have been doing this the past couple of years. I’ve on record as having a somewhat mixed view of this — 18-year-olds can vote, join the military and go to … Continue reading California Assembly approves bills to raise smoking age to 21 and to regulate e-cigs<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[350,21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california","category-e-cigarettes","category-e-cigs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/california-legislature.jpg?fit=500%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-YE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2897,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2897","url_meta":{"origin":3760,"position":0},"title":"California latest state to consider raising smoking age to 21","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"California is the latest state to propose raising the smoking age to 21. A bill has been introduced into the California State Assembly to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21. The State of Washington is considering similar legislation. Some states have a smoking age of 19 (Utah, Alaska,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/college-smoker.jpg?fit=600%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/college-smoker.jpg?fit=600%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/college-smoker.jpg?fit=600%2C300&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3879,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3879","url_meta":{"origin":3760,"position":1},"title":"California raises smoking, vaping age to 21; e-cigs banned in public buildings","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"California is the latest entity -- and the biggest -- to raise the age for buying cigarettes and vaping products to 21 (There's a misunderstanding here, it's not against the law for 18-year-olds to smoke or vape ... it's against the law to sell products to people under 21 now.).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"2C13DE0D00000578-3226486-Young_people_who_use_e_cigarettes_are_four_times_more_likely_to_-a-2_1441727432935","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/2C13DE0D00000578-3226486-Young_people_who_use_e_cigarettes_are_four_times_more_likely_to_-a-2_1441727432935.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3305,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3305","url_meta":{"origin":3760,"position":2},"title":"California moves toward raising smoking age to 21","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"California is the latest state that is seriously considering raising the smoking age from 18 to 21. The California Senate passed a bill raising the smoking age (pretty easily with a vote of 26-8); now the bill goes to the State Assembly. The Hawaii Legislature passed a similar bill earlier\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/people-smoking-art-a5608c6973c633ac.jpg?fit=419%2C303&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2248,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2248","url_meta":{"origin":3760,"position":3},"title":"New York City bans cigarette sales to people under 21","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, I've been called a do-gooder more times than I can count, but even for me this is a bit much (thanks to Haruko for the link). 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Report on Colorado bill Honestly, don't have a strong opinion on this. I see the logic behind making 21 the legal age for alcohol, because too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "smoking"","block_context":{"text":"smoking","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=57"},"img":{"alt_text":"teen smoking","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/teen-smoking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2864,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2864","url_meta":{"origin":3760,"position":5},"title":"Washington attorney general proposes raising smoking age to 21","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an issue where I tend to split off from a lot of anti-tobacco advocates. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a bill last week to raise the smoking age in Washington from 18 to 21. 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