STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2516

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2006

RE: S.B. No. 2503

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2503 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FLAVORED TOBACCO PRODUCTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit the sale and distribution of flavored tobacco products.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Attorney General, Department of Health, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Cigar Association of America.

Your Committees find that there has been an influx of new flavored tobacco products on the market targeting children. These products work as an innovation intended to increase market share of tobacco manufacturers by both meeting product preferences of target audiences and acting as a means of reaching desirable young target audiences in an environment of growing tobacco restrictions.

Your Committees further find that since the use of cartoon characters to sell cigarettes has been prohibited, major tobacco companies have devised a new way to target children by selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in assorted candy and exotic flavors, such as "twista lime" and "chocolate mint."

Your Committees further find that prohibiting the sale and distribution of flavored cigarettes is imperative to the health and well-being of our children.

Your Committees have adopted the suggestions of the Department of the Attorney General, the Department of Health, and the Cigar Association of America and amended this measure to prohibit the distribution and sale of flavored cigarette products but not other tobacco products for which the marketing focus is not children.

Your Committees amended this measure further by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2503, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2503, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services,

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SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair