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LAKEVILLE, Minn. — From prohibiting flavored tobacco products to increasing the tax on cigarettes to requiring electronic-cigarette manufacturers to have a plan to recycle their products, there are many proposals to regulate tobacco.
State tobacco-related legislative bills that have been introduced this year to date are listed below alphabetically by state:
- Arizona: Senate Bill 1245 requires a state tobacco retail license administered by the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control and preempts local jurisdictions regulation of tobacco product sales with some exceptions.
- Colorado: House Bill 1064 prohibits the sale and distribution of all flavored cigarettes, tobacco products and nicotine products. The ban also includes flavored synthetic nicotine products. HB1064 has been referred to the House Health and Insurance Committee.
- Hawaii: Senate Bill 2037 bans the sale of flavored tobacco products.
- Idaho: Senate Bill 1285 prohibits any locality from enacting ordinances regulating the marketing or sale of tobacco or vapor products and also prohibits localities from imposing additional taxes or fees on tobacco products or vapor products.
- Maryland: House Bill 789 (applies only in Prince George’s County) provides that an applicant for a license to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products must affirm that the applicant does not hold an alcoholic beverage license to act as retail dealer and that the establishment from which cigarettes and other tobacco products are sold is not within 1 mile of another licensed establishment.
- Mississippi: House Bill 892 taxes cigars, cheroots, stogies, snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco and all other tobacco products except cigarettes at the rate of 22.5% of the manufacturer’s list price. House Bill 1096 increases the tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack. Senate Bill 2729 prohibits the sale of single or loose unpacked cigarettes and provides that the Commissioner of Revenue shall ban the sale of tobacco from the physical premises in which a violation of this section occurs.
- Missouri: House Bill 2467 allows any political subdivision to increase the tax on cigarettes and tobacco products subject to the approval of a majority of qualified voters. House Bill 2659 requires sellers of tobacco products, alternative nicotine products and vapor products to report additional information to the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control.
- New Jersey: Assembly Bill 2572 (same as SB305) prohibits the sale of tobacco products and electronic smoking devices at pharmacies.
- New Mexico: House Bill 33 increases the tax on cigarettes by $2 per pack; increases the OTP tax (other tobacco pr0ducts tax includes nicotine products, regardless of the source of the nicotine) to 77% of the product value; and increases the tax on e-liquid to 77% of the product value and increases the tax on closed system cartridges to $3.32 per cartridge. Senate Bill 39 increases the tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack; increases the OTP tax (includes nicotine products, regardless of the source of nicotine) to 60% of the product value; increases the tax on e-liquid to 60% of the product value; and increases the tax on closed system cartridges to $2.40 per cartridge.
- New York: Assembly Bill 8884 requires e-cigarette manufacturers to submit plans for the collection, transportation and recycling of e-cigarettes to the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation. Requires manufacturers to accept the return of e-cigarettes for recycling; requires vapor product dealers to accept the return of used e-cigarettes for recycling.
- Oklahoma: House Bill 3094 requires any retailer, distributor or wholesaler that sells electronic cigarettes to have a license to sell such products from the ABLE Commission. This bill has been pre-filed for the 2022 session.
- Virginia: House Bill 1199 addresses remote sellers regarding taxation and licensing.
- Washington: House Bill 2039 bans the sale of vapor products containing nicotine salts and allows the state’s Secretary of Health to restrict sales of flavored vapor products and limit the allowable nicotine concentration in vapor products.
- West Virginia: Senate Bill 426 increases the cigarette tax to $1.50 per pack and the e-cigarette liquid tax to $0.0975 per milliliter.
Thomas A. Briant is the executive director of NATO, a tobacco retailing association based in Lakeville, Minn. Reach him at info@natocentral.org.
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