STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2222

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2029

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2029 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products, including electronic smoking devices, from eighteen to twenty-one;

     (2)  Prohibit the sale or furnishing of tobacco or an electronic smoking device to a person under twenty-one; and

     (3)  Make conforming amendments regarding minimum age to enter certain premises.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Police Department, City and County of Honolulu; The Queen's Health Systems; American Cancer Society; Hawaii Primary Care Association; Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii; American Lung Association; and several individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Volcano Fine Electronic Cigarettes, Hawaii Smokers Alliance, and one individual.

     Your Committees find that tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in Hawaii.  Your Committees further find that tobacco companies actively target young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, because it is a critical time period when young adults transition from experimentation to addiction.  Additionally, more than nine in ten people start smoking before the age of twenty-one.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the tobacco restrictions apply to persons born on or after July 1, 1996, until the day of their twenty-first birthday; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2029, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2029, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair