STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1192

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: S.B. No. 613
                                     S.D. 2




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No.
613, S.D. 2, entitled:

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TOBACCO PRODUCTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to promote and preserve the
health of Hawaii's children and to protect them from the effects
of tobacco use.

     Specifically, this bill creates a statewide licensure
mechanism for retail tobacco sales that provides for licensing
retail tobacco vendors, inspections and enforcement, adjudication
of fines and penalties, training and education for retail
merchants, and public awareness of the State's law governing the
sale of tobacco to minors.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this bill
from the American Lung Association of Hawaii and Coalition for a
Tobacco Free Hawaii and opposing testimony from the Hawaii Food
Industry Association, the Retail Liquor Dealers Association, the
Retail Gasoline Dealers Association, and the Legislative
Information Services of Hawaii.

     Your Committee finds that about ninety per cent of smokers
begin smoking before age eighteen and that minors are beginning
to experiment with tobacco use at younger ages than ever before.

 
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Your Committee further finds that reducing youth access to
tobacco products is an instrumental component in reducing the
number of minors who smoke cigarettes or use tobacco products,
and that the compliance of merchants is of utmost importance.

     Your Committee wishes to point out that the various concerns
expressed by testifiers should be dealt with in the Committee on
Consumer Protection and Commerce.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
613, S.D. 2, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be
referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Health,



                                   ______________________________
                                   ALEXANDER C. SANTIAGO, Chair

 
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