AUGUSTA - The Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee voted to advance a bill from Rep. Michele Meyer, D-Eliot, that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in Maine. The vote was 7-4.
"The tobacco industry knows that nicotine addiction begins in young, developing brains, and they have spent decades marketing flavored products specifically designed to hook youth and young adults," said Meyer, a registered nurse and House chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. "Tobacco use puts our children's health and futures at risk. Smoking kills more people than any other preventable illness and causes chronic disease, harming nearly every organ of the body."
LD 1550 would prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco products in Maine, including menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarette products.
The vote comes two weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it will move to ban menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. Meyer said that is the right move but that her bill is still urgently needed.
"This is an important step forward, but FDA action can take years to go into effect," said Meyer. "With LD 1550, we have an opportunity here in Maine to take swift action to protect Maine children from developing nicotine addictions through the use of flavored tobacco products. We can literally save lives."
According to a Maine-based coalition supporting the proposed ban, there are more than 15,000 flavored tobacco products on the market today. That includes e-cigarette products, which have been linked to a surge in youth smoking rates in recent years. The rate of Maine high school students using e-cigarettes has nearly doubled in the last two years, and 8 out of 10 middle and high school students who use e-cigarettes use flavored products.
Research shows the aggressive marketing of flavored tobacco products, particularly menthol cigarettes, has disproportionately harmed Black communities. Tobacco use causes 45,000 deaths among Black Americans nationwide each year.
The measure faces further votes in both the House and Senate in the coming weeks.
Meyer is serving her second term in the Maine House and represents House District 2, which includes Eliot and parts of Kittery and South Berwick.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Meyer], c. 812-1111