STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2696

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2654

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2654, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHAPTER 245, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect public health by decreasing the use of electronic smoking devices.

Specifically, this measure:

(1) Prohibits the:

(A) Shipment of tobacco products to anyone other than a licensee; and

(B) Transport of tobacco products ordered through remote sale to anyone other than a licensee;

(2) Includes e-liquid within the definition of "tobacco products";

(3) Increases the license fee for persons engaged as a wholesaler or dealer of cigarettes and tobacco products; and

(4) Increases the retail tobacco permit fee for retailers engaged in the retail sale of cigarettes and tobacco products.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Health, a member of the Kauai County Council, American Heart Association, Hawaii Public Health Association, Blue Zones Project-Koolaupoko, Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, Hawaii Public Health Institute, Pioneering Healthier Communities of Honolulu, and seventy-six individuals.

Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from Hawaii Smokers Alliance, PCG Enterprises LLC, Black Lava Vape, Smokeless Hawaii, VOLCANO Fine Electronic Cigarettes, Cigar Rights of America, and twenty-one individuals.

Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Taxation and Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committee finds that the use of electronic cigarettes among high school students has increased nine hundred percent from 2011 to 2015, making them now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2654, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2654, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair