Trump signed law setting benchmark at 21, 41 states now compliant
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Physician John Eplee hasn’t accepted hesitancy of Kansas lawmakers to raise the threshold for purchase, possession and consumption of cigarettes to 21 years of age from the current standard of 18.
Eplee, who also serves as a Republican state representative from Atchison, said Thursday he was convinced financial and health arguments for the higher age were persuasive enough to keep pushing for adoption of House Bill 2269. He said many of his patients, as well as his parents in their mid-70s, succumbed to tobacco-related diseases. If he were king for a day, Eplee said he would impose a permanent ban on tobacco for all ages.
Still, Eplee told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee that he recognized some in the Capitol remained unconvinced despite his years of advocacy.
“I have been surprised at the pushback on this bill in past sessions,” he said. “We are hung up on taking someone’s rights away over … a product that causes long-term addiction, dependency and death. I thought one of government’s core values was to protect citizens from omnious threats, even if from within ourselves.”
President Donald Trump signed legislation in 2019 amending the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to set the age to buy tobacco products at 21 or older. Incentive for states to accept the federal standard — so far, 41 have signed on, including Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma — was availability of millions of dollars in funding for state enforcement and addiction programs. If Kansas declined to act on the House bill or something comparable to bring the state into compliance, Kansas could lose $1.2 million annually in federal aid.
While the Trump administration’s tobacco reform did preempt state law, Kansas would lack jurisdictional authority to enforce federal law on tobacco products without action by the Legislature and Gov. Laura Kelly. Some Kansas vendors voluntarily accepted the higher age restriction, but all businesses wouldn’t be required to conform until state law was aligned with the age barrier embraced by Trump.
Kevin Gregg, who lobbies for Fuel True Independent Energy and Convenience, said the association of 300 petroleum distribution companies and convenience store retailers would support a “clean bill” simply raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21.
He said the industry group wouldn’t support amendments attaching fines to punish retailers that sold tobacco products to underage customers. The industry’s compliance rate of 95% on tobacco sales made sanctions unnecessary, he said.
If the bill was implemented as written, the Kansas Department of Revenue said state tobacco tax revenue would fall $7.6 million in the upcoming fiscal year. The projection was based on federal reports suggesting Kansas had 17,000 smokers aged 18 t0 20. That’s less than 5% of all adult smokers in the state.
Other reform ideas
Sara Prem, president of the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition, lauded a shift in the state’s minimum legal age of tobacco sales to 21, but would like the bill to repeal criminal penalties on youth caught purchasing, using or possessing tobacco products. She said penalties on youth weren’t an effective deterrent.
“Penalties for youth may divert attention from more effective tobacco control strategies, like strengthening retailer penalties who illegally sell tobacco, e-cigarettes and other nicotine products to youth,” Prem said. “It relieves the tobacco industry of responsibility for its marketing practices and retailers’ irresponsible sale to minors.”
Kari Rinker, who represents the American Heart Association in Kansas, said passage of the House bill without amendments would be a missed opportunity to work of the corporate tobacco inustry. She said those companies aggressively targeted Kansas kids with e-cigarettes and were developing new products containing addictive substances appealing to younger consumers.
She said lawmakers ought to consider repealing state sanctions on young smokers and updating definitions of tobacco or tobacco-like products in the statute book to stay ahead of the product curve.
Physician Dena Hubbard, public policy chair of the Kansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, had another suggestion for the House Federal and State Affairs Committee. She urged lawmakers to approve the age change, but also incorporate a ban on flavored nicotine products.
“The exponential rise of e-cigarette use by children and adolescents is a public health emergency,” she said. “E-cigarettes are now the most common tobacco product used by teens. We should not allow any flavoring for products as dangerous as tobacco.”
‘Very ironic’
Roy Jensen, a physician and director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center in Kansas City, said cancer killed an estimated 5,600 Kansans annually to rank as the state’s second leading cause of death. Tobacco-related disease was associated with 4,400 deaths in Kansas each year, he said.
“One way we can dramatically cut Kansans chances of developing cancer is to prevent our youth from using tobacco products and becoming dependent on them,” Jensen said. “For many years, adolescent smoking rates have been declining. However, nearly one in five high school seniors still use tobacco.”
He said upward shift in the legal smoking age in Kansas law would sqeeze the supply of tobacco purchased by people 18 to 21 and resold to those under 18. Raising the minimum tobacco age to 21 could reduce high school smoking by 50%, the doctor said.
Tara Mays, vice president of legislative relations with the Kansas Hospital Association, said the age change would benefit Kansans age 15 to 20. She said research indicated 85% of daily smokers began before 21, and raising the minimum age from 18 could delay or reduce smoking rates.
Eplee said there was irony in the approach of some politicians to regulation of tobacco and marijuana.
“I find it so fascinating that we live in a time where we debate the appropriateness of allowing young adults to ingest or smoke chemicals from a plant (tobacco) that has zero medicinal value and only causes loss, destruction and ultimately death,” he said. “And, yet, in the same session of this body, we will have debated on the chemicals derived from another plant (marijuana) that, at the margins, may have some medicinal value for some patients and yet is illegal for everyone. Very ironic.”