Two Honolulu City Council members who introduced Bill 46 to ban flavored tobacco products to protect Oahu’s youth responded to questions over their acceptance of political campaign contributions from tobacco industry lobbyists.
Passing on a 6-3 Council vote Wednesday, the measure bans such products at the point of sale for minors but includes exemptions for specific tobacco-related products — namely hookahs, premium cigars and loose-leaf and shisha tobaccos.
Although Council Chair Tommy Waters and Council member Matt Weyer sponsored this latest anti- tobacco legislation, according to the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission, both received contributions from local lobbyists with ties to major tobacco companies.
And those lobbyists reportedly sought further exemptions within Bill 46.
In April 2022, Weyer received a $500 political contribution from Ross Yamasaki, a lobbyist who works for Altria Client Services LLC, connected to tobacco companies Philip Morris USA Inc., a leading cigarette manufacturer, and John Middleton Co., which manufactures cigars and pipe tobacco.
Similarly, in April 2022, Weyer received a $500 political contribution from Bruce A. Coppa, a lobbyist who works for Capitol Consultants of Hawaii LLC. According to the Campaign Spending Commission, from January 2021 to December 2022, Coppa and his firm represented Reynolds American Inc., the U.S. parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., American Snuff Co. and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., among others.
Likewise, in March 2021, Waters received a $1,000 political contribution from Coppa’s firm, while it still represented Reynolds American Inc., according to the commission.
“My commitment to unbiased legislative actions remains steadfast and unswayed by political campaign contributions, and that is certainly the case with Bill 46,” Waters told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email. “As a note, these lobbyists represent various clients, not solely the tobacco industry. Regardless, any contributions received are in no way linked to my legislative decisions.”
For his part, Weyer asserted that his vote as an elected Council member was not for sale.
“No donor or contribution has influence over my vote, and introducing and supporting Bill 46 shows that,” he said via email. “When introduced by Chair Waters and myself, the bill contained no exemptions for any flavored tobacco products.”
As chair of the Council’s Housing, Sustainability, and Health Committee, Weyer added that as far as Bill 46 was concerned, “committee members made reasonable requests to exempt hookah tobacco and loose-leaf tobacco, for cultural reasons, and premium cigars that are not mass produced, which generally do not target youth and are not sold at our neighborhood convenience stores.
“The tobacco industry’s inclusion of menthol as an exemption, which increases addiction by making cigarette smoking more palatable, was never considered or included in any draft, for sound public health policy must be based on available data and not the interests of Big Tobacco,” he said. “Bill 46 was passed for and supported by our youth.”
But by phone Weyer confirmed that he met with lobbyists Coppa and Yamasaki “just to talk about the bill.”
“I did meet with them after (Bill 46) was introduced, and the only topic of conversation was menthol,” said Weyer. “They felt like an exemption would be appropriate.”
However, Weyer said exempting menthol “wasn’t an option” with regard to Bill 46, “just because menthol is a big driver of cigarette addiction, particularly in communities of color,” he said. “And it didn’t come up at all in any of the committee meetings.”
Meanwhile, some believe that adopting Bill 46 was pointless.
Opponents say the measure would take effect only if a 5-year-old state law — Act 206, which stripped authority from Hawaii’s four largest counties to regulate or restrict the sales and use of tobacco and nicotine products — is overturned and suspended.
Out of that law, the state Department of Taxation collects tobacco tax money — almost $96.9 million in 2022. Of that amount, $86.02 million was collected from Oahu alone, according to state reports.
If Act 206 does disappear, then Bill 46 will create a so-called trigger ban on flavored tobacco products — which variously offer the taste or smell of fruit, menthol, mint, chocolate, honey or any candy, among others — that target youth smokers.
As adopted, Bill 46 intends to ban these flavored tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices, that contain “a characterizing flavor or that impacts a cooling or numbing sensation during consumption of a tobacco product,” the bill reads.
These devices, the bill states, have been linked to severe lung disease, pose potential harm to brain development and might cause acute nicotine poisoning. And, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, across a range of tobacco products, flavorings are one of the main reasons that youth initiate tobacco use.
In Hawaii the minimum age to legally buy tobacco and e-cigarette products is 21.
Still, those on the Council who opposed Bill 46 — including Augie Tulba — felt it could not properly be enforced.
“This is an issue because the city is dealing with a lot of vacancies,” Tulba said at the meeting. “The enforcement of a tobacco ban would require manpower, but we have yet to discuss which department would take this on and how to fill these positions.”
Under Council questioning Wednesday, Honolulu Police Department Capt. Michael Kunishima confirmed that HPD enforces existing alcohol and tobacco sales laws throughout the city, via a federal grant that funds underage decoy operations. He added those decoy operations — involving a minor attempting to purchase alcohol or tobacco products while being observed by police — are conducted once a year.
In 2022, Kunishima said, out of the more than 800 regulated establishments in the city, over 55 retailers received citations for selling tobacco to minors.
According to Weyer, Bill 46 does not address enforcement.
“Essentially, all options are on the table,” Weyer said, adding those options could include expanding the use of HPD — perhaps by way of more federally funded grants — or utilizing the city’s Liquor Commission to enforce the new ordinance aimed at curbing youth smoking. “It depends how much we’re going to prioritize this epidemic. … It comes down to how big of a crisis it is.”
