Veterans organizations and Republican lawmakers in California objected to the bill, saying people old enough to die for their country are old enough to use tobacco. Four of the five bills approved in a special session on health care will go into effect June 9, and the last bill Brown signed Wednesday will go into effect January 1, 2017, as do most bills signed into law.
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Under other legislation signed by the governor, electronic cigarettes are considered to be tobacco products and can not be used in restaurants, theaters, bars and other places where smoking has always been banned.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a set of smoking-related bills Wednesday, including a bill that raises the legal smoking age for tobacco from 18 to 21. There is an exemption for military personnel, The Associated Press reports, for whom the age limit would stay at 18.
Hawaii is the first state in America to increase the smoking age on January, following the lead of over 100 other cities, including San Francisco, Boston and NY. Experts believe that this will definitely deter adolescents from nicotine’s harmful effects as the Institute of Medicine found out that most smokers begin using tobacco before turning 19 years old as per Star Tribune. Regulating their manufacture and sale as tobacco products should help reverse this trend, supporters of the e-cig bill say. Brown, however, vetoed legislation that would allow counties to impose their own tobacco taxes.
The state will also expand its funding for anti-smoking programs under the bills.
Then-mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg donated $500,000 to support the 2012 initiative, which was heavily outspent by tobacco interests and narrowly defeated.
Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, gave $54,000 to Brown’s 2014 re-election campaign.
“The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) recognizes Governor Brown for taking historic steps to rein in the tobacco industry that will result in lives and taxpayer money saved”. They notified state officials in February that they’ve collected at least 25 percent of the 535,407 signatures they’ll need to place the question on the November ballot.
Another bill the governor signed closes loopholes that have allowed smoking in certain areas, such as employee break rooms, hotel lobbies and warehouse facilities.
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“Although California has one of the lowest cigarette tax rates in the nation, I am reluctant to approve this measure in view of all the taxes being proposed for the 2016 ballot”, Mr. Brown said in a veto message.
