The Hawaii State Senate introduced a bill on January 16 that would seek to implement a generational ban on tobacco and nicotine product purchases for anyone born after January 1, 2005.
The bill, SB429, introduced by Sens. Karl Rhoads and Stanley Chang, would prohibit the possession or consumption of a tobacco product in a public place by a person born after that date. Violations for the consumer would include having their products seized and destroyed and would receive a fine ranging from $10 to $50, while the retailers who sold the products would face fines between $500 and $2,000. The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee, but if passed as written, would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
The bill states “’tobacco product, means any product made or derived from tobacco that contains nicotine or other substances and is intended for human consumption or is likely to be consumed, whether smoked, heated, chewed, absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, or ingested by other means. ‘Tobacco product’ includes but is not limited to a cigarette, cigar, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, snuff, snus, or an electronic smoking device. ‘Tobacco product’ does not include drugs, devices, or combination products approved for sale by the United States Food and Drug Administration, as those terms are defined in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.”
The bill further explains, “The legislature also finds that a prohibition based on a person’s date of birth is fair to everyone—those who have not yet attained the age of twenty-one and cannot presently purchase tobacco will never be able to buy it, while the right to purchase tobacco will remain available to those who are legally permitted to do so and who may have already formed addictive habits as a result.”
