Banning filtered cigarettes creates new problems instead of addressing the issue of littering

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Local jurisdictions in California continue to introduce onerous regulations on tobacco products. The latest effort comes from Santa Cruz County, where local legislators are trying to ban filtered cigarettes. This initiative is being pushed by California environmental groups. 

Last year, after extensive debate Santa Cruz County enacted a filter ban on cigarettes; however, the ordinance cannot go into effect unless two of the four cities in the county pass similar filter ban legislation prior to Jan. 1, 2027. In June, the city of Santa Cruz passed the ban and now the city of Capitola in California is going through the process to ban filtered cigarettes. 

The implications of these bans are quite substantial. For example, Santa Cruz County will lose sales taxes and business activity. The vast majority of cigarettes sold today are filter products. Santa Cruz County retailers would need to remove hundreds of products from their store shelves. The customers who buy these products also buy other products at the same time, such as groceries, snacks and beverages. Retailers will lose this entire market basket of sales to other jurisdictions, and Santa Cruz will lose the taxes it collects on all these sales, not just the filtered tobacco products.

Additionally, with filtered cigarettes readily available outside the county, legal age adults will stock up at retailers when they are in other jurisdictions. This has been seen on other banned products in California. When California’s flavor ban took effect in December 2022, the state of California experienced a decline in tobacco tax collections of 13% year-over-year in the first quarter after the ban went into effect. A study of discarded packs of cigarettes from public trash cans in cities around the state in May and June 2023, found that over one-fourth of banned menthol cigarettes were from outside the United States, including from Mexico and China. Another quarter were from domestic products of unknown origin, a tactic known to be used by smugglers. Another 6.5% of packs, mostly for menthol cigarettes, were from other states. Some of these products are trafficked by Mexican cartels, putting adult consumers and underage users into contact with criminal enterprises. There is no reason to believe that banning the sale of filtered cigarettes in Santa Cruz County will have any impact on how many filtered cigarettes are consumed in the county.

As a significant amount of current legal sales in Santa Cruz County would simply continue elsewhere with the products brought to the county either legally for personal use or for feeding the illicit market, the amount of litter associated with cigarettes would remain. The amount of litter attributed to cigarette filters is also routinely over-estimated; the volume of paper and plastic bag litter outpaces all tobacco products (not just filters) as sources of litter. This proposal does nothing to address litterers. Perhaps focusing on the actors that cause litter before banning products would be more prudent. A more effective approach to alleviating litter might be increasing enforcement against litterers.

Simply put, Santa Cruz County is implementing policies that will create new problems instead of addressing the issue of littering. Other jurisdictions should think twice about what is the most effective way to address litter without impacting local businesses and their own tax receipts.

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