Newsom targets youth vaping with executive order
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced an executive order to curb youth vaping — making California the third state to take executive action in the past two weeks to address what federal health officials are calling a growing epidemic among teens.
The order, aimed at both nicotine and cannabis vaping products, calls on the California Department of Public Health to develop recommendations to increase enforcement efforts against the sale of illicit and counterfeit vaping products and the sale of any vaping products to youth under 21, and to establish standards for warning signs and labels in retail stores and on ecigarette packaging. The agency is to submit its recommendations to the governor’s office by Oct. 14.
The executive order also
allocates $20 million for a marketing campaign on social media and other channels to educate teens and parents about the health risks of vaping nicotine and cannabis. The money will come from taxes raised by Propositions 56 and 64, two voterapproved measures passed in 2016. The majority, $15 million, comes from Prop. 56, which raised the tax on cigarettes by $2 per pack and for the first time imposed taxes on vaping products containing nicotine. The remaining $5 million comes from Prop. 64, which legalized recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and older.
Newsom’s action does not go as far as steps taken in recent weeks by the governors of Michigan and New York, who called on their respective public health agencies to develop regulations prohibiting the sale of flavored ecigarettes. President Trump last week announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates ecigarettes, will issue a regulation banning the sale of flavored ecigarettes at the federal level. Researchers believe sweet and fruity flavors like mango are a major driver in youth vaping because teens who would not have started smoking cigarettes are attracted to flavored nicotine vapor, which is less harsh and tastes better than cigarettes.
Newsom said he personally wants to ban the sale of flavored ecigarettes, but that California laws and regulations require legislative action to do so.
“It appears a governor alone is not afforded the right legally to ban those products outright,” Newsom said. “We’d need legislative support. We’re pushing the envelope, we’ll see how far we can go . ... I’m hopeful we can find a pathway to do just that, in the absence of any legislative push.”
A bill coauthored by State Sen. Jerry Hill, DSan Mateo, would have banned the sale of flavored ecigarettes, but it was withdrawn by its authors in the recent legislative session after being watered down. Hill said Monday he plans to reintroduce his bill in January and add an urgency clause. This clause would make the measure harder to pass — it would need a twothirds majority in the Assembly and the Senate, as opposed to a simple majority. But if it is approved by both houses and the governor, it would take effect immediately, as opposed to the following year, as is the case with most legislation.
The executive order could also raise taxes on ecigarettes to make the rates more comparable with taxes on traditional cigarettes. It calls on the Department of Tax and Fee Administration to review the way ecigarettes are taxed and potentially raise the taxes paid by consumers. Traditional combustible cigarettes are taxed at $2.87 per pack, whereas ecigarettes are taxed at 59.27% of the wholesale price. Newsom cited a hypothetical example of a Juul pod — which has roughly the same amount of nicotine as one pack of cigarettes — with a wholesale price of $2.50 would be taxed $1.48, as opposed to $2.87.
The tax agency is to submit its recommendations by Oct. 29.
California has seen 63 cases of serious vaping-related lung illnesses that have been linked to hundreds of hospitalizations and six confirmed deaths nationwide. Many of the cases involve people who vaped cannabis products that were illegally obtained. Officials have yet to pinpoint a specific substance or product that caused the problems.
Antitobacco health groups said the governor’s action does not go far enough, and called on him to ban the sale of flavored ecigarettes.
“We are clearly disappointed that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order does not do more to stem the youth tobacco epidemic,” said Jim Knox, the managing director of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network California. The organization “feels strongly a complete sales restriction on all flavored tobacco products is urgently needed.”
At least 30 California cities and counties have outlawed the sale of flavored tobacco, including ecigarettes, in the past few years. Among the most recent are the cities of San Francisco and Alameda and the counties of San Mateo and Marin, all in 2018. San Francisco in June went a step further, passing an ordinance that bans the sale of all ecigarettes, regardless of flavor, until the products are reviewed by the FDA.