Tag: Hawaii

  • Hawaii Bans Import of E-Cigs and E-Liquids

    Hawaii Bans Import of E-Cigs and E-Liquids

    Credit: Jeff White

    Hawaii has banned the shipping of e-cigarettes or other tobacco products, reports the Star Advertiser.

    Under the new legislation, a person who knowingly and unlawfully ships vaping and other tobacco products valued at less than $10,000 could face misdemeanor charges.

    Anything valued above $10,000 would be classified as a class C felony.

    Governor Josh Green said this change will help to better regulate smoking products that enter the state.

    “Tobacco is poison, and tobacco use continues to be the single most preventable cause of disease that we could deal with, that we can affect when we make good decisions as policymakers; it causes death in the United States, so this is a monumental first step in protecting our keiki from big tobacco,” he said, using a Hawaiian word for children or offspring.

    Any business selling vaping products must have a retail tobacco permit from the state. The new law takes effect on July 1.

  • Flavored Tobacco Ban Dies in Senate

    Flavored Tobacco Ban Dies in Senate

    Hawaii State Legislature (Credit: Jeff White)

    By not scheduling a hearing, lawmakers in Hawaii have killed a bill proposing to ban flavored vaping and other tobacco products in the state.

    Legislators had until Thursday to schedule the hearing for H.B. 551; however, the legislation failed to get voted out of a Hawaii Senate committee, meaning the bill will not move forward, according to KITV.

    The bill passed the House earlier this month.

    If passed, H.B. 551 would have banned the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products effective Jan. 1, 2024.

    Retailers caught violating the standard would have been fined at least $100 for a first offense and up to $1,000 for subsequent violations.

    This is the latest attempt at banning flavored tobacco sales in Hawaii. Last year, the Hawaii legislature passed a flavor ban bill, but it was vetoed by the governor.

    While H.B. 551 will not move forward, there’s another bill, S.B. 1447, that would remove Hawaii’s existing preemption clause regarding tobacco regulations.

    This would allow counties to enact stricter laws than the state law, a way for bans on the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products to begin.

    S.B. 1447 has already passed the Hawaii Senate and is continuing to move forward in the Hawaii House of Representatives.

  • Hawaii Lawmakers Propose ‘Endgame’ Bill

    Hawaii Lawmakers Propose ‘Endgame’ Bill

    Image: Mercedes Fittipaldi | Adobe Stock

    A new bill introduced in the Hawaii Senate would make it illegal for anyone born after 2002 to possess, purchase or use tobacco or vaping products. 

    S.B. 148 would change the state’s tobacco rules to deny anyone born after Jan. 1, 2003, from purchasing and consuming these products.

    Those caught selling or providing tobacco or vaping products to consumers covered by the law would be subject to a $500 fine for a first offense and a fine of between $500 and $2,000 for any offense after that.

    In addition, anyone born after 2002 caught violating the law as a consumer would be subject to a $10 fine for the first offense, a $50 fine for a subsequent offense, or the option to do between 48 hours and 72 hours of community service.

    If passed, the change would take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. S.B. 148 currently has six sponsors.

    The concept of a generational sales ban was introduced in New Zealand in 2021 and was approved by that country’s government late last year. It has also been proposed in Malaysia, California and Nevada.

    In 2015, Hawaii became the first U.S. state to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 years old, which has since become the federal standard.

    In 2019, Hawaiian lawmakers proposed a bill that would slowly increase the age to purchase tobacco products, starting with raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes from 21 to 30 in 2020.

    By 2022, no one under 50 would have been able to buy cigarettes.

  • Hawaii Sues Juul for Misleading Marketing

    Hawaii Sues Juul for Misleading Marketing

    Photo: jessica45 from Pixabay

    Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors has filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs seeking penalties, damages and injunctive relief for violations of the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices Law.

    The complaint alleges that, for a period of more than five years, the defendants misleadingly marketed Juul e-cigarettes, intending to hook users on the product in the same manner used by tobacco companies in the marketing of cigarettes. 

    According to the attorney general, the defendants used marketing strategies that targeted teenagers, making Juul products seem desirable, all while falsely understating the nicotine content of the product and its addictiveness.

    “In marketing their e-cigarettes to Hawaii’s children, these companies ripped pages directly out of the tobacco company playbook and resurrected Joe Camel for a 21st Century audience,” said Connors. “By misrepresenting nicotine content and by presenting their products as healthy alternatives to cigarettes, they deceived the public and created a new generation of nicotine addicts.”

    The state seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and damages along with an injunction requiring the defendants to halt their deceptive advertising practices and fund mitigation programs, including vaping-cessation programs.

  • Prohibition proposed

    Prohibition proposed

    Under a proposal before Hawaii’s state Legislature, cigarette sales would be effectively banned outright by 2024, according to a Hawaii News Now story.

    The ban would go into effect progressively, starting with raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes from 21 to 30 in 2020.

    By 2022, no one under 50 could buy cigarettes.

    And two years later, no one under 100 would be allowed to buy cigarettes.

    The story rated the measure, House Bill 1509, as a long shot. It said it had passed its first reading last week, a procedural hurdle, and had been assigned to committees. But it didn’t yet have a hearing.

    That didn’t mean it wouldn’t get one, the story went on to say, especially after news of the proposal started generating headlines nationally.

    The authors of the bill, two Democratic representatives and a Republican, said the proposed ban simply made sense.

    “The cigarette is considered the deadliest artifact in human history,” they wrote in the preamble to the measure. “The cigarette is an unreasonably dangerous and defective productive, killing half of its long-term users.”

    About 13 percent of Hawaii adults are smokers, which is lower than the national average of 17 percent.

    Hawaii also has one of the nation’s highest cigarette taxes, at $3.20 a pack. And more than a decade ago, the Hawaii Legislature significantly expanded smoke-free zones, and included e-cigarettes in those prohibitions three years ago.

    The measure before lawmakers that would ban cigarette sales would not include e-cigarettes.

  • Retail limits proposed

    Retail limits proposed

    A bill introduced into the Hawaii Senate on Friday is seeking to keep new tobacco and electronic-cigarette stores from opening near schools, public parks, or public housing complexes, according to a story by Patrick Lagreid for HalfWheel.
    Lagreid said the bill had been introduced by six state senators.
    If passed, it would require any ‘new tobacco specialty shop’ to be at least 750 feet from the designated places.
    Violators would face a fine of $500 for the first day of offense, and a fine of between $500 and $2,000 for subsequent days of offense.
    The bill has not been referred to a committee, but if it were to pass, the ban would take effect on January 1, 2019.

  • Hawaii raises tobacco sale age to 21

    Hawaii became the first U.S. state to raise the tobacco sale age to 21 when Governor David Ige signed the landmark legislation on June 19. The law, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2016, is part of the state’s effort to reduce smoking rates among young people and to make the next generation of Hawaiians tobacco-free.

    Hawaii joins 68 cities and counties in eight states that have already raised the tobacco age of sale to 21. The California Senate recently approved similar legislation prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to those under the age of 21, and the legislation is now before the state’s General Assembly.

    Tobacco use claims approximately 1,400 lives in Hawaii and costs $526 million in health care bills each year. Increasing the tobacco sale age to 21 is expected to reduce tobacco use among youth and young adults, decrease the number of smoking-related deaths, and keep tobacco products out of schools, where younger teens may obtain tobacco from older students. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, tobacco companies spend more than $27 million annually in Hawaii to market tobacco products, and 95 percent of current adult smokers began smoking before they turned 21.