Bill Text: HI HB1788 | 2014 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Flavored Tobacco Products; Tobacco Products; Electronic Smoking Devices; Menthol; Penalties
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-01-21 - Referred to HLT, JUD, referral sheet 3 [HB1788 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2014-HB1788-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
1788 |
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TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to flavored tobacco products.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that documents obtained during litigation against the tobacco industry reveal that tobacco companies have used fruit, candy, and alcohol flavors as a way to target the tobacco companies' products to youth.
The legislature further finds that in October 2006, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and the attorneys general of thirty-eight states, including Hawaii, entered into a settlement agreement that ended the sale of fruit, candy, and alcohol flavored cigarettes manufactured and sold by the company. The states had asserted that R.J. Reynolds was in violation of the 1998 tobacco master settlement agreement's prohibition on youth targeting through the company's advertising, marketing, and promotion of its flavored cigarettes.
Although no agreement was reached with the other tobacco manufacturers, the federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 prohibited the manufacture and sale of flavored cigarettes. However, there is no comparable federal prohibition for other flavored tobacco products.
The legislature additionally finds that marketing and public health research have shown that flavored tobacco products appeal to youth. The younger individuals are when they begin to use tobacco, the more likely they are to become addicted to tobacco products. Public health concerns have also been raised about the growing popularity and targeted marketing of menthol tobacco products. Public health organizations have expressed similar concerns about electronic smoking devices, whose refill cartridges often come in hundreds of kid-friendly fruit and candy flavors – the same flavors that are legally prohibited in conventional cigarettes.
Given the significant threat to public health that flavored tobacco products, including menthol tobacco products and electronic smoking devices, pose, many local and state governments have considered efforts to regulate the sale of flavored tobacco products. The legislature concludes that Hawaii should also take steps to regulate these products.
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to prohibit the sale, offering for sale, or distribution of any flavored tobacco product, including menthol products and electronic smoking devices, within the State.
SECTION 2. The Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended by adding a new chapter to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"Chapter
flavored tobacco products
§ -1 Definitions. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
"Characterizing flavor" means a distinguishable or distinctive natural or artificial taste, flavor, smell, or aroma, other than tobacco, that emanates from or is imparted by the tobacco product, component part of the tobacco product, or tobacco product's smoke or vapor at any time prior to or during consumption. The term "characterizing flavor" includes menthol.
"Cigarette" means any product that contains nicotine, is intended to be burned or heated under ordinary conditions of use, and consists of or contains:
(1) Any roll of tobacco wrapped in paper or in any substance not containing tobacco;
(2) Tobacco in any form that is functional in the product, which, because of its appearance, the type of tobacco used in the filler, or its packaging and labeling, is likely to be offered to or purchased by consumers as a cigarette; or
(3) Any roll of tobacco wrapped in any substance containing tobacco which, because of its appearance, the type of tobacco used in the filler, or its packaging and labeling, is likely to be offered to or purchased by consumers as a cigarette described in paragraph (1) of this definition.
The term "cigarette" includes "roll-your-own" tobacco that enables consumers to make their own product.
"Component part" means any element of a tobacco product, including but not limited to the tobacco, filter, paper, electronic smoking device cartridge or refill cartridge, or natural or artificial flavoring device or substance.
"Constituent" means any ingredient, substance, chemical, or compound, other than tobacco, water, or reconstituted tobacco sheet, that is added by the manufacturer to a tobacco product during the processing, manufacturing, or packaging of the tobacco product. The term "constituent" includes a smoke constituent.
"Electronic smoking device" has the same meaning as in section 709-908.
"Flavored tobacco product" means any tobacco product or any component part of the tobacco product that contains a constituent that imparts a characterizing flavor.
"Smoke constituent" means any chemical or chemical compound in mainstream or sidestream tobacco smoke that transfers from any component part of the tobacco product to the smoke or is formed by the combustion or heating of tobacco, additives, or other component part of the tobacco product.
"Tobacco product" means tobacco in any form, other than cigarettes as defined in this chapter, that is prepared or intended for consumption or for personal use by humans, including cigars and any substitutes of cigars other than cigarettes that bear the semblance of cigars, snuff, chewing or smokeless tobacco, and smoking or pipe tobacco. For purposes of this chapter, "tobacco product" includes electronic smoking devices.
§ -2 Prohibition. Beginning on January 1, 2015, no person shall sell, offer for sale, or otherwise distribute any flavored tobacco product within the State.
§ -3 Remedies. (a) The attorney general may institute a civil action in the name of the State in the circuit court for an injunction prohibiting a violation of this chapter. If the court grants an injunction in accordance with this section, the State shall not be required to furnish a bond. The court, upon notice to the defendant in compliance with the Hawaii rules of civil procedure and upon proof that the defendant has violated this chapter, may enjoin further sale, offering for sale, or distribution by the defendant.
(b) Any person who violates this chapter shall be fined $500 for the first offense. Any subsequent offense shall subject the person to a fine not less than $500 nor more than $2,000.
(c) The attorney general may recover costs and disbursements, including costs of investigation and reasonable attorney's fees.
(d) Nothing in this section shall preclude the State or any other person from pursuing any other claims, remedies, or actions available by law.
§ -4 Presumption. A public statement or claim made or disseminated by the manufacturer of a tobacco product, or by any person authorized or permitted by the manufacturer to make or disseminate a public statement or claim, that a tobacco product has or produces a characterizing flavor shall be prima facie evidence that the tobacco product is a flavored tobacco product."
SECTION 3. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the Act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.
SECTION 4. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Flavored Tobacco Products; Tobacco Products; Electronic Smoking Devices; Menthol; Penalties
Description:
Prohibits the sale, offering for sale, or distribution of any flavored tobacco product, including menthol products and electronic smoking devices, within the State beginning on January 1, 2015.
The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
