Bill blocking cities from stricter tobacco laws passes Ohio legislature

COLUMBUS, Ohio — State lawmakers handed laws early Thursday morning prohibiting cities from enacting their very own legal guidelines limiting smoking and e-cigarette tobacco gross sales.

Senate Republican lawmakers added the supply, generally known as a “preemption” legislation, to a different invoice in committee late Tuesday. It basically claims tobacco gross sales are the area of state — not native — authorities. It stops cities from including new charges or taxes to tobacco merchandise, together with cigarettes and vapes, or elevating the age necessities to purchase tobacco merchandise.

Home Republicans agreed to the adjustments round 1 a.m. Thursday. In each chambers, all Democrats opposed the proposal.

The laws is the newest episode of the Republican-dominated state legislature stripping energy from cities, principally managed by Democrats, to set their very own guidelines. State Republicans have handed different preemption legal guidelines stopping cities from:

· Regulating weapons.

· Regulating knives.

· Banning fuel hookups in new buildings.

· Banning the usage of plastic luggage at grocery shops.

The brand new legislation broadsides an ordinance Columbus Metropolis Council handed on Monday that bans the sale of flavored and menthol tobacco merchandise. It’s slated to take impact in 2024.

A number of anti-smoking advocates testified in opposition to the proposal. Leo Almeida, a lobbyist with the American Most cancers Society, criticized the state proposal, given it eases guidelines across the main preventable reason for loss of life in America.

“The annual healthcare prices in Ohio straight attributable to smoking are $6.56 billion, which incorporates $1.85 billion in prices to Medicaid,” he mentioned in a press release. “This modification would forestall native municipalities from fostering breakthroughs and customised options that might help the state in saving lives and cash, which the final meeting is all the time seeking to do.”

Cleveland Well being Commissioner Frances Mills additionally tried to rally assist for defeating the invoice, saying in an electronic mail to advisers within the metropolis’s Workplace of Minority Well being that “the proposed laws limiting native management to deal with vaping and flavored tobacco could be a setback to the entire work we now have invested regionally to implement underage tobacco use and to forestall hurt related to smoking, together with vaping and the usage of menthol and different flavored tobacco merchandise.”

The tobacco trade has lengthy pursued state preemption payments round age limits, smoke-free indoor legal guidelines, and different areas, in keeping with the Public Well being Regulation Heart on the Mitchell Hamline Faculty of Regulation.

As of September, 24 states have legal guidelines preempting native ordinances limiting gross sales of tobacco to younger folks, in keeping with the CDC. Each state and federal legislation prohibit distributors from promoting tobacco merchandise to anybody youthful than 21.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce supported the laws. Commerce must be uniform throughout the state “reasonably than utilizing a patchwork of native guidelines and ordinances,” mentioned its lobbyist, Kevin Shimp.

Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, mentioned tobacco regulation is and must be a state problem, provided that cities’ tobacco restrictions have an effect on the state’s tax collections.

The Ohio Wholesale Entrepreneurs Affiliation testified in assist of an earlier model of the invoice that targeted on tobacco taxes and didn’t embody the preemption language. A consultant couldn’t be reached for remark.

In September, Juul Labs, which manufactures a well-liked tobacco vaping model, agreed to pay $438.5 million to settle an investigation by almost three dozen states over advertising and marketing and gross sales practices that allegedly sparked a teen vaping disaster, The New York Instances reported. And earlier this month, the outlet reported Juul has agreed to pay one other $1.7 billion to settle hundreds of lawsuits from colleges and native governments alleging their e-cigarettes have been extra addictive than marketed.

Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and coverage. Learn extra of his work right here.