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The State of California Legislative season is in full swing! Several tobacco bills are making their way through the legislative process, listed below. If you would like legislative updates sent directly to your inbox, create an account at California Legislative Information and track the bills that you are interested in following. You can also find a calendar of legislative deadlines to keep track of critical milestones.
Assembly Bill (AB) 599: Suspensions and expulsions: tobacco (Ward): This bill would amend existing state law to remove tobacco and tobacco product use or possession from the list of acts for which a student may be suspended or recommended for expulsion.
Status: Set for hearing in the Assembly Committee on Education on July 5.
AB 935: Tobacco sales: flavored tobacco ban (Connolly): Initially proposed as a bill to implement a phased tobacco ban for Californians born after a certain date, this bill was amended in the Assembly Health Committee on April 11 and now instead adds enforcement language to California’s statewide flavored tobacco ban (SB 793). Specifically, the bill proposes to make the provisions of the flavored tobacco ban punishable by civil penalties in the same manner as the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act and ensures that moneys collected from these civil penalties shall be deposited in the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Compliance Fund to be made available to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA). Primary enforcement of the Act is the responsibility of the State of California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the state attorney general’s office. See existing law for specifics of STAKE Act. (California Business and Professions Code § 22950 – 22964).
Status: Minor amendment made in the Senate on June 26 to add co-authors and set for hearing in Senate Committee on Governance and Finance July 5.
Senate Bill (SB) 626: Smoking in the workplace: transient lodging establishments (Rubio): This bill would eliminate the existing exemption in state law that permits hotels and motels to allow smoking in up to 20% of guestroom accommodations, thereby making it illegal to smoke in 100% of all hotel and motel guestrooms and transient lodging establishment.
Status: Passed out of Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment on June 14 and re-referred to Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
The following cannabis-related bills may be of interest as well:
AB 374: Cannabis: local control: cannabis consumption (Haney): This bill would authorize a local jurisdiction to allow a licensed retailer or microbusiness in the area where the consumption of cannabis is allowed, to sell prepackaged, non cannabis-infused, nonalcoholic food and beverages, and to sell tickets for live musical or other performances on the premises.
Status: Passed from Senate Committee on Business, Professions, and Economic Development on June 26 and ordered to third reading.
AB 1207 Cannabis: Labeling and Advertising (Irwin): This bill would prohibit the sale, manufacture, advertisements or marketing of cannabis or cannabis products that are attractive to children. The bill would also prohibit cannabis or cannabis products intended for use by inhalation or combustion from containing any natural or synthetic flavors or descriptors of flavors.
Status: Set for hearing in Senate Committee on Business, Professions, and Economic Development July 3.
SB 285: retail preparation, sale, and consumption of noncannabis food and beverage products (Allen): This bill would authorize a local jurisdiction to allow for the preparation or sale of noncannabis food or beverage products by a licensed retailer or microbusiness in the area where the consumption of cannabis is allowed. It would also authorize a local jurisdiction to allow for the sale of prepackaged, noncannabis-infused, nonalcoholic food and beverages by a licensed retailer.
Status: Passed out of Assembly Committee on Business and Professions on June 20 and rereferred to Assembly Committee on Governmental Organizations.
SB 540: Cannabis and cannabis products: health warnings (Laird): This bill would authorize the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) to reevaluate current cannabis product warning labels to include evolving science. It would also require DCC and CDPH to create an informational sheet or folded brochure that includes steps for safer use of cannabis and post it at the point-of-sale at cannabis microbusinesses and online.
Status: Passed out of Assembly Committee on Business and Professions on June 27 and rereferred to Assembly Committee on Appropriations. Read a second time and amended in the Appropriations Committee.
For more information, please contact Ryan Pyle
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