Shipping e-cigarettes or other tobacco products in Hawaii can land you in jail after Governor Josh Green signed new measures into law today.
Under the new legislation, a person who knowingly and unlawfully ships vaping and other tobacco products valued at less than $10,000 could face misdemeanor charges.
Anything valued above $10,000 would be classified as a class C felony.
The governor said this change will help to better regulate smoking products that enter the state.
“Tobacco is poison ok and tobacco use continues to be the single most preventable cause of disease that we could deal with, that we can affect when we make good decisions as policymakers, it causes death in the united states, so this is a monumental first step in protecting our keiki from big tobacco,” he said.
Any business selling vaping products must have a retail tobacco permit from the state. The new law takes effect on July 1st.
Lawmakers in Hawaii last week passed a “tax parity” law that applies the tax rate for traditional tobacco products to vaping products. If signed into law by Governor Josh Green, vaping products would be subject to a 70 percent wholesale tax—one of the highest rates in the country.
The bill, SB975 SD2 HD3, defines vaping products as “tobacco products,” and was negotiated in a marathon conference session between the State House and Senate just before the deadline for this year’s legislative session. The legislative session adjourns on May 4.
It isn’t certain the exact date the bill will be sent to Green, or if he intends to sign it into law. If signed, the tax will take effect Jan. 1, 2024. Currently, Hawaii has no tax on vaping products.
Right now, e-cigarettes only have the general excise tax (GET) of between 4.1 percent and 4.7 percent attached to them. Combustible cigarettes sold in Hawaii carry other taxes.
Last year, having survived a rollercoaster legislative session that saw the bill near death on multiple occasions, Hawaii’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes was signed by its governor.
By not scheduling a hearing, lawmakers in Hawaii have killed a bill proposing to ban flavored vaping and other tobacco products in the state.
Legislators had until Thursday to schedule the hearing for H.B. 551, however, the legislation failed to get voted out of a Hawaii Senate committee, meaning the bill will not move forward, according to KITV.
The bill passed the House earlier this month.
If passed, H.B. 551 would have banned the sales of flavored tobacco and vaping products effective Jan. 1, 2024.
Retailers caught violating the standard would have been fined at least $100 for a first offense and up to $1,000 for subsequent violations.
This is the latest attempt at banning flavored tobacco sales in Hawaii. Last year, the Hawaii Legislature passed a bill, but it was vetoed by the governor.
While H.B. 551 will not move forward, there’s another bill, S.B. 1447, that would remove Hawaii’s existing preemption clause regarding tobacco regulations.
This would allow counties to enact stricter laws than the state law, a way for bans on the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products to begin.
S.B. 1447 has already passed the Hawaii Senate and is continuing to move forward in the Hawaii House of Representatives.
Generational bans on vaping and other tobacco products are becoming more popular with lawmakers.
A new bill introduced in the Hawaii Senate would make it illegal for anyone born after 2002 to possess, purchase or use tobacco or vaping products.
S.B. 148 would change the state’s tobacco rules to deny anyone born after to Jan. 1, 2003, from purchasing and consuming these products.
The rules would only apply while in Hawaii, meaning out-of-state visitors would need to comply with Hawaii’s laws, though Hawaii residents would not be subject to the laws while visiting other states, reports Halfwheel.
Those caught selling or providing tobacco or vaping products would be subject to the existing fine structure for selling to those under 21: $500 for a first offense, and $500-$2,000 for any offense after that.
In addition, anyone born after 2002 caught violating the law as a consumer would be subject to a $10 fine for the first offense, a $50 fine for a subsequent offense, or the option to do between 48-72 hours of community service.
If passed, the change would take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. S.B. 148 currently has six sponsors.
The concept was introduced in New Zealand in 2021 and was approved by that country’s government late last year. It has also been proposed in Malaysia.
Since then similar proposals have been introduced in California, Hawaii and Nevada, though none have been passed.
In 2015, Hawaii became the first to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 years old, which has since become the federal standard.
In 2019, Hawaiian lawmakers proposed a bill that would slowly increase the age to purchase tobacco products starting with raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes from 21 to 30 in 2020.
By 2022, no one under 50 would have been able to buy cigarettes.
Lawmakers in Hawaii want to tax electronic nicotine delivery systems and e-liquid products at a rate of 70 percent.
Right now, e-cigarettes only have the general excise tax (GET) of between 4.1 percent and 4.7 percent attached to them. Combustible cigarettes sold in Hawaii carry other taxes.
Rep. Scot Matayoshi and other lawmakers claim that the 70 percent tax proposed under House Bill 537 will bring vaping into tax parity with cigarettes and other nicotine products that already carry taxes in addition to the GET.
As of 2022, 696 vaping product retailers are registered in Hawaii.
Scott Rasak, a representative of Volcano eCigs, described the 70 percent tax as an industry killer, according to Civil Beat.
“Some of the bills they’re putting forward are ending people’s businesses and livelihoods that they spent the last decade building,” he said in an interview.
Rasak said that he wishes the Legislature would work more with the vaping industry to understand how it can make a positive impact on the community, instead of “targeting retailers that are responsible in selling the products under legal provisions.”
Last year, having survived a rollercoaster legislative session that saw the bill near death on multiple occasions, Hawaii’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes was signed by its governor.
A $2.8-million grant to develop and evaluate a school-based, culturally-grounded e-cigarette prevention intervention for Hawaii’s rural youth has been awarded to University of Hawaii Cancer Center researcher, Scott Okamoto.
Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the project builds on Hoʻouna Pono, a drug prevention curriculum designed for rural Hawaiian adolescents, according to the university.
The e-cigarette intervention plan will update the existing Hoʻouna Pono curriculum and introduce new e-cigarette and vaping prevention content, including a social and print media campaign across middle/intermediate and multi-level public and public-charter schools on Hawaii Island.
More than 500 students are anticipated to enroll in the study over five years.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study to develop and test an e-cigarette prevention intervention tailored to rural Hawaiian youth,” Okamoto said. “Our proposed intervention will educate youth on the risks of e-cigarette use, while also reflecting the cultural and relational values of rural Hawaiian youth and communities.”
Having survived a rollercoaster legislative session that saw the bill near death on multiple occasions, Hawaii’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes now land’s on the governor’s desk. Many industry experts say he may veto the controversial legislation.
The ban, which takes effect after the new year, outlaws the sale of nearly all flavored tobacco products in Hawaii stores, including menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, according to Civil Beat. The primary target of the measure, however, are flavored e-cigarettes most popular with middle and high school students.
After a contentious debate Tuesday, House Bill 1570 passed its final reading in the state House of Representatives with 36 voting in favor and 15 in opposition, reflecting division among public health advocates and other supporters who turned their backs on the measure they helped write.
At issue was a Senate amendment that would exempt from the ban certain tobacco products that had received federal Food and Drug Administration approval.
It is a major loss for Hawaii’s legal vaping industry, which has campaigned vigorously against a prohibition on the products that form their livelihood.
“[About] 99.9 percent of everything that our industry sells to adult consumers, legally with age verification, is flavored products,” said Scott Rasak, chief operating officer of Volcano, a vape shop chain with 16 locations across the state. “We’re talking about hundreds of businesses, thousands of jobs.”
Vape shop owners argue that a tobacco ban will force kids onto the black market. Public health activists, however, have long advocated for cutting flavored vapes off at the source.
Hawaii’s vaping industry will challenge the ban’s legality in court, Volcano’s Rasak vowed.
The bill might also receive pushback from Gov. David Ige, who introduced a similar flavor ban to the Senate this year but has yet to reveal his stance on HB 1570 in its current form.
“I think that the governor might veto the bill,” Matayoshi said in an interview after the vote. “It really depends on the census of the (public health) community.”
A bill in Hawaii’s House of Representatives (HB 1570) proposes to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco and synthetic nicotine products. HB 1570 would also prohibit companies from mislabeling e-liquid products as nicotine-free and marketing electronic smoking devices to appeal to anyone under the age of 21.
Retailers who violate the proposed rule would face a $500 fine for a first offense and between $500 and $2,000 for a second violation, according to KITV.
Anyone under the age of 21 in possession of a synthetic nicotine product or electronic smoking device would be fined $10 for a first offense. Any repeats would cost $50 or between 48 and 72 hours of community service.
After Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers advanced and amended the bill to include quarterly meetings between the Department of Health and students across all schools on the matter. Establishing a vape and e-cigarette take-back program at high school and intermediate campuses statewide was also added to the measure.
HB 1570 faces several other hearings and readings in the house.
The 2022 legislative session kicked off Wednesday, starting a nearly five-month process that will shape Hawaiʻi’s future. On Tuesday, legislators and advocates with the Keiki Caucus unveiled their priorities for the upcoming session.
The caucus will be introducing nearly 30 bills covering issues such as sex trafficking, after-school programs, and sex education. The group will also attempt to ban all flavored vaping products. State Rep. Scot Matayoshi said the bill will also make it harder for kids to purchase these products.
“95 percent of smokers start before the age of 21 and 81 percent of youth have tried a flavored nicotine product as their first tobacco product,” he said in an Hawai’i Public Radio report. “So these products really are a gateway into nicotine addiction.”
“What really hit home for me is that 31 percent of middle schoolers have tried vaping — and that’s the age of student that I used to teach when I was a DOE teacher. So that really struck a chord in me that a third of my students would have been vaping right now or would have tried a flavored vaping product,” he told Hawaiʻi Public Radio. “It’s really targeting kids. That’s what makes it very insidious. And it’s disguising nicotine, which is a highly addictive drug as a candy-flavored product.”
Matayoshi acknowledged past efforts to ban flavored tobacco products have fallen short but says he is hopeful for this year.
Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors has filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs seeking penalties, damages and injunctive relief for violations of the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices Law.
The complaint alleges that, for a period of more than five years, the defendants misleadingly marketed Juul e-cigarettes, intending to hook users on the product in the same manner used by tobacco companies in the marketing of cigarettes.
According to the attorney general, the defendants used marketing strategies that targeted teenagers, making Juul products seem desirable, all while falsely understating the nicotine content of the product and its addictiveness.
“In marketing their e-cigarettes to Hawaii’s children, these companies ripped pages directly out of the tobacco company playbook and resurrected Joe Camel for a 21st Century audience,” said Connors. “By misrepresenting nicotine content and by presenting their products as healthy alternatives to cigarettes, they deceived the public and created a new generation of nicotine addicts.”
The state seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and damages along with an injunction requiring the defendants to halt their deceptive advertising practices and fund mitigation programs, including vaping-cessation programs.
