It’s the latest state to attempt to protect public health by outlawing safer nicotine products while keeping the most dangerous ones available.
It makes no sense, but nannies rarely do.
Supporters of Hawaii’s effort to ban flavored-tobacco products would have the public believe that the measure is an unobjectionable, common-sense effort to boost public health. For instance, House Bill 1570’s author, Rep. Scot Matayoshi, told Civil Beat that it’s just a “very simple” prohibition on the sale of flavored tobacco and synthetic nicotine products.
Yet the bill’s advocates — just like advocates for similar legislation in California, Massachusetts, and elsewhere — are disingenuous. Flavor bans are supposed to keep teens from accessing nicotine products, even though it’s already illegal for retailers to sell cigarettes and vapes to people under 21. Instead of focusing on efforts to keep adult products away from kids, lawmakers are taking the easy route by banning the products for everyone.
The measure is potentially deadly because increasing numbers of adult smokers break their deadly cigarette habit by switching to safer products.
Steven Greenhut – The American Spectator – 2022-04-11
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