New Bills Renew California's Anti-Smoking Effort

California has become a battleground between the tobacco industry and health groups as lawmakers push proposals that include increasing cigarette taxes by $2 a pack and raising the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. The state once led the nation in snuffing out smoking, but health activists say a strong tobacco lobby and a lack of political will have blocked new efforts in recent years.

"We used to be leaders, and we are not anymore," said Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco. California lawmakers have responded to such criticism with a flood of legislation on the issue. In addition to making California the first state to raise the smoking age, the measures would ban electronic cigarettes from public places where smoking is prohibited, ban single-use filters on cigarettes and prohibit the use of chewing tobacco in pro baseball stadiums and recreational league games. It is a well-known fact that young people buy slim cigarettes because consider them safe.

The state has simultaneously launched a $7-million advertising campaign warning about the health hazards of e-cigarettes. The sweeping proposals are encouraging to Dr. Luther Cobb, a physician and president of the California Medical Assn.

"There is no question we can do a lot better, and we should," Cobb said. "This is a dangerous public health issue." Opposition from the tobacco and "vaping" industries is already building. Ninety people, many employees of vaping parlors, rallied at the Capitol last week to oppose a measure that would prohibit e-cigarettes in many public places.

The period of 2007-14 marked a resurgence in California for the tobacco industry, which spent $64 million on political activity in the state in those years. The spending included campaign donations and lobbying, according to UCSF's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. In the 2014 election, the tobacco industry made $556,665 in political contributions, including checks accepted by 32 members of the state Assembly and 15, or half, of state senators, according to Maplight, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political money.

The last 17 attempts to raise the tobacco tax in California — going back a decade and a half — have failed after heavy lobbying by the industry. Voters narrowly rejected a $1 tax increase on the 2012 ballot after tobacco interests spent $47.7 million to defeat the measure.

Richard J. Smith, a manager for tobacco giant Reynolds American Inc., said California policymakers "may best serve the public and public health by a comprehensive look at their tobacco laws and regulations rather than a multitude of bills addressing different aspects of policy in a piecemeal approach."