Hawaii will have to wait yet another year for meaningful regulations on e-cigarettes, and even longer if House Bill 1570 is not vetoed. You read that right: Meaningful change will take longer if this tobacco bill is not vetoed. This is because HB 1570, while introduced as a strong bill to end the sale of flavored tobacco products, quickly became the target of poison pill amendments and emerged as a flavor ban in name only. Window dressing regulations like this only delay progress and perpetuate an unjust system in which harmful products are aggressively marketed to marginalized communities.
Advocates have fought for e-cigarette regulations for nearly 10 years with little success since 2015, the year Hawaii raised the smoking age to 21, included e-cigarettes in our smoke-free air laws, and prohibited tobacco products in state parks. Gone are Hawaii’s days as a leader in tobacco control. We have not increased the cigarette tax in more than a decade, and Hawaii is one of only two states with a Democratic state legislature that does not tax e-cigarettes.
Necessary regulations include: requiring sellers to carry permits and/or licenses, taxing e-cigarettes in the same manner as other tobacco products, closing online sales loopholes to make it harder for kids to purchase e-cigarettes (“vapes”), and banning the sale of flavored tobacco, including e-cigarette flavors and menthol. Since 2018, advocates have been forced into the position of asking the governor to veto four of the tobacco bills that have passed. Four! Of the four requests, Gov. David Ige vetoed two, and will make a decision on the fourth — HB 1570 — on Tuesday.
Why so many veto requests? Are advocates unrealistic and unwilling to compromise? Of course not. We understand that it is virtually impossible to pass a perfect bill and we know that compromises are often necessary in order to create change. We do not expect every bill to meet the gold standard. However, when “compromise” means letting the tobacco industry write its own loopholes into our laws, we have to draw the line.
Time and time again we have seen (although not actually “seen,” as the tobacco industry notoriously focuses its lobbying behind closed doors) the tobacco industry flex its power and insert poison pill amendments into well-written, well-intended bills at the eleventh hour. The biggest blow to tobacco control was a law passed in 2018, which robbed the counties’ ability to pass stricter laws around the sale of tobacco. This preemption language was conveniently inserted into one of the governor’s priority funding bills at the final stage of session, giving him little choice but to let it pass.
And now, HB 1570 further advances Big Tobacco’s strategy of diluting state and local control over tobacco policy by handing over regulatory authority to the FDA. Hawaii is far from unique in this regard, and what happened to HB 1570 shows that the tobacco industry is still just as powerful here as it is in nearly all states.
What makes it so hard to pass a strong bill? Oftentimes well-meaning legislators who worked on the issue feel that “something is better than nothing” or hope that it can be fixed down the line. It is not easy to turn on your own bill — for legislators or for advocates. However, history has taught us that fixing these types of loopholes can be even more difficult than starting fresh with a new, stronger bill the following year, and that as long as there is a loophole in the law, the tobacco industry will find a way to exploit it. After all, their business model requires them to addict the next generation.
Jessica Yamauchi is CEO of the Hawaii Public Health Institute.
