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Tag: smoking ban

  • Texas Raises Legal Smoking Age To 21

    Texas Raises Legal Smoking Age To 21

    The ban does not extend to members of the military under the age of 21 years.

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that prohibits the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to anyone under the age of 21.

    Supporters of the ban, which goes into effect September 1, said that it could aid in reducing the number of young adults who become regular smokers, which according to the Surgeon General numbers around 2,400 per day.  With passage of the bill, Texas joins a growing list of cities and states across the country that have increased the legal tobacco age.

    Governor Abbott signed Senate Bill 21 into law on Friday (June 7). The scope of the ban includes cigarettes and other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has attributed with a 38% rise in tobacco use among high school students between 2017 and 2018. Juul, which the Huffington Post described as the most commonly used brand of e-cigarette, has voiced support for “Tobacco 21” legislation, as such bills are often called.

    As HuffPost also noted, the ban does not extend to members of the military under the age of 21 years.

    A report from the Surgeon General stated that more than 600,000 middle school students and three million high school students currently smoke cigarettes. Those numbers have slowed in their decline over the last decade, while rates of decline for smokeless tobacco, such as e-cigarettes, have “stalled completely,” according to the report.

    The report also stated that more than 1,200 individuals in the United States die due to smoking-related causes each day, and for each of those deaths, at least two “youth or young adults” become regular smokers each day. Approximately 90% of those “replacement smokers” use their first cigarette by the age of 18.

    According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, similar “Tobacco 21” bans have been passed in 14 states including California, Hawaii (the first to pass such a ban in 2016), Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Some 470 cities and counties, including New York City, Chicago and Boston, have also passed bans, though the strength of these ordinances varies by location.

    U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to raise the tobacco age to 21 on the federal level.

    Beverly Hills, California, recently became what is believed to be the first city to ban tobacco sales to anyone, save for hotel guests, cigar lounges and any retailer that can demonstrate undue financial distress due to the ban.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Atlanta May Soon Ban Smoking In Public Places

    Atlanta May Soon Ban Smoking In Public Places

    Atlanta already passed a smoking ban for outdoor parks in 2012.

    Under a new bill, Atlanta, Georgia could soon join the growing number of cities that have banned smoking in public places. 

    According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the new legislation would prohibit smoking in various public spaces, including Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (by getting rid of smoking lounges), restaurants and bars, hotels, motels, stores, offices, public transit, restrooms and parking structures.

    Smoking within five feet of the entrances of such places, windows and ventilation systems would also be prohibited, the AJC reports. 

    “If people wish to smoke in public, we simply ask that they step outside,” said city council member Matt Westmoreland. “Legislation like this saves lives. It creates a safer, healthier city.”

    In 2012, Atlanta passed a smoking ban for outdoor parks. Under the proposed legislation, the definition of smoking would be expanded to also include e-cigarettes or vaping. However, this excludes facilities like cigar bars and hookah lounges that meet certain sales thresholds. 

    Some restaurants in the area already ban smoking while others allow it, according to the AJC. This is because back in 2005, Georgia passed what it called a smoke-free law, which allowed restaurants and bars to allow smoking under certain circumstances. 

    Currently, according to Georgia Restaurant Association CEO Karen Bremer, it’s estimated that less than 10% of restaurants in the area allow smoking.

    Tommy Webb, owner of Northside Tavern, currently allows it but says he is open to the idea of becoming a non-smoking space.

    “People have been pushing me to go to non-smoking… It is a question that comes up often and I’m caught in the middle,” Webb told the AJC. “I’m rolling with the times.”  

    Officials at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport—the country’s busiest airport—have been planning to convert existing smoking lounges into shops or restaurants. According to the AJC, the airport is one of only five in the U.S. that still allows smoking.

    Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, expressed in a statement that the airline supports the idea of a smoke-free airport. “Employees and customers who work and travel through ATL every day deserve a safe and healthy environment,” the statement read. 

    Moving forward, Westmoreland says he plans to hold a work session in May during which the ordinance would be discussed.

    If approved by committees and the full council, the ordinance may be in effect by September 1 of this year. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Florida Ends Medical Marijuana Smoking Ban

    Florida Ends Medical Marijuana Smoking Ban

    “It’s a triumph owed to the relentless advocacy of Floridians who refused to be silenced,” said the state’s Agriculture Commissioner.

    Nearly two years after the state approved a medical marijuana program, officials in Florida have made it possible for people to smoke medical marijuana by lifting a ban on selling marijuana buds in the state. 

    Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill that removed the ban on Monday (March 18). He had been pushing for the legislature to pass such a law that would lift the ban, after a court in Florida ruled that prohibiting smokable medical marijuana violated the state’s constitution, which was amended to allow medical marijuana use. 

    “Over 70% of Florida voters approved medical marijuana in 2016,” DeSantis tweeted last Monday. “I thank my colleagues in the Legislature for working with me to ensure the will of the voters is upheld.”

    Because of the change to state law, Florida will not appeal the court ruling, DeSantis said. 

    “Now that we have honored our duty to find a legislative solution, I have honored my commitment and filed a joint motion to dismiss the state’s appeal and to vacate the lower court decision which had held the prior law to be unconstitutional,” he tweeted. 

    Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said in a statement reported by CBS News that the removal of the ban was a victory for voters who had come out in favor of medical marijuana.

    “It’s a triumph owed to the relentless advocacy of Floridians who refused to be silenced,” said Fried. “Our state must not disregard the voice of its people—when the people’s will is nullified by those with authority, liberty cannot survive.”

    The law takes effect immediately, but in practice it will take time for the Florida health department to set standards for prescribing smokable marijuana, so there could be a delay for patients, CBS reported.

    With the new law, medical marijuana patients who are older than 18 will be able to access 2.5 ounces of marijuana every 35 days. 

    Yet, by Thursday, at least one medical marijuana patient in Florida was able to purchase marijuana flower, according to Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve, the dispensary that made the first sale. 

    “Offering these whole flower products to our patients in their purest, most-effective form is something we—and patients—have been looking forward to since we opened the doors of the state’s first dispensary,” Rivers said in a statement, reported by The Orlando Sentinel. 

    Doug Dixon, 59, was the first patient to make a legal smokable marijuana purchase in the state.

    “I didn’t know if I would ever see it in my time,” he said. “But it is good to see it. It is good to have the alternative. These pharmaceuticals are killing people. I have lost so many family members.’’

    View the original article at thefix.com