State Bill To Prohibit Sales Of Flavored Tobacco Products Advances
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – The state bill to prohibit sales of flavored tobacco products cleared its first major hurdle today.
The Senate Health Committee voted 8-1 in favor of the SB 793, sending it to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further review, according to a statement from the Office of State Senator Jerry Hill.
"We also need to be cognizant of the long-term consequences of a new generation hooked on nicotine," said Hill, who introduced the bill. "Thirteen-hundred people die every day due to tobacco-related illnesses; there is no reason the most deadly product on earth needs to have a candy flavor."
California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, a bill cosponsor, was the first to testify in favor of the legislation.
The bill would prohibit store sales of flavored tobacco products including e-cigarettes, e-hookahs, e-pipes, and other vaping devices, as well as all flavored smokable and non-smokable tobacco products, including cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, snuff, and tobacco edibles.
The bill would also prohibit the sale of "flavor enhancer" e-liquids, which heighten or add candy, fruit, menthol and other flavors, and are used to make DIY vape. juices.