Similar Bills To Raise Smoking Age Head To House And Senate For Action

By Victoria Ratliff
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS- Lawmakers are on a path to raise the smoking and vaping age from 18 to 21 after separate House and Senate committees advanced their version of anti-tobacco legislation Wednesday.

Both House Bill 1006, authored by Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer, R-Beech Grove, and Senate Bill 1, authored by Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, passed unanimously in committees Wednesday, undergoing minor changes to the language.

Both bills raise the smoking and vaping age from 18 to 21 and provide penalties for youths who use the products and retailers who sell to underage buyers. They also provide penalties for individuals who buy cigarettes or vapes for underage youth.

There was no testimony or SB 1 in the House Public Health Committee, but HB 1006 saw support in the Senate Health and Provider Services Committee from a majority of those who testified.

Kevin Brinegar, president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, said Indiana’s smoking rate is 50% above the national average, and this bill will save Indiana businesses millions of dollars.

“It’s estimated that smoking costs employers in Indiana $6.2 billion a year,” he said. “In addition to whatever leave, vacation time they give employees, a smoker will take the equivalent of three weeks off a year in smoke breaks.”

A critique of  HB 1006 came from Bryan Hannon, the Indiana government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. Under the bill, anyone under 21 could face up to a $500 fine if caught and Hannon said that amount is too high.

“What we don’t want to happen is that we overburden kids, addicted kids, and especially their families,” he said.

But Mason Odle, vice president of the Indiana Smoke-Free Alliance, said the possible fines teens would be subjected to aren’t enough.

“The penalties are set as a deterrent to the individual,” he said. “A large penalty will certainly make parents take note a little bit more of what’s going on with their children.”

Odle also said while youth shouldn’t be using either cigarettes or vaping products, vaping products shouldn’t be as vilified as they are.

“While I agree increasing the age from 18-21 is a significant step in the right direction, helping those millions of Hoosiers that are smoking finding a better path to quitting combustible cigarettes is in the best interest of all of us,” he said.

But the vaping industry has been under assault. On Tuesday, the Indiana Attorney General’s office announced that it is joining 39 other states to investigate Juul Labs, a company that produces vapes and flavored vape cartridges.

The coalition will be investigating the company’s marketing and sales that target youth nicotine users, the attorney general’s office said in a press release. The release also said while smoking rates among youth have gone down, vaping among youth has skyrocketed.

HB 1006 will head to the Senate for debate while SB 1 heads to the House for action.

FOOTNOTE: Victoria Ratliff is a reporter with TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.