HONOLULU — Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed into law a bill he acknowledged is imperfect but “nonetheless a powerful and first step” in banning flavored tobacco products from Honolulu retail shelves.

What You Need To Know

  • Bill 46, which passed the Honolulu City Council earlier this month, prohibits the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including candy-flavored vaping liquids used to attract young users, within the county.

  • In a state Department of Health survey, one in three high school students reported using e-cigarettes; eight out of 10 said they started with a flavored tobacco product

  • Before the provisions of the bill can take effect, the state must first act to return authority to ban tobacco products to individual counties

  • Current state law mandates that the sale of cigarettes, tobacco products and electronic smoking device are regulated solely at the state level

“We want to fully protect our youth from the harm of tobacco, would we and we believe we strongly believe it is necessary to prohibit all flavored ingredients including menthol in all tobacco and nicotine products,” Blangiardi said at a bill-signing ceremony on Oct. 20.

Bill 46, which passed the Honolulu City Council earlier this month, prohibits the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including candy-flavored vaping liquids used to attract young users, within the county.

Both Blangiardi and Weyer praised the efforts of youth advocates who championed the bill, three of whom attended the signing.

Blangiardi, whose public stand against youth-targeted marketing of tobacco products dates back to his days as general manager of Hawaii News Now, cited data from the state Department of Health that found one in three high school students report using e-cigarettes, and eight out of 10 saying they started with a flavored tobacco products.

However, before the provisions of the bill can take effect, the state must first act to return authority to ban tobacco products to individual counties.

Current state law mandates that the sale of cigarettes, tobacco products and electronic smoking device are regulated solely at the state level.

“We need a comprehensive approach to ending the youth vaping crisis and we’re proud that the City and County of Honolulu is leading the way — but we can’t do it alone,” Blangiardi said. “We need the state to give us back the power to regulate tobacco products so this law can go into effect.”

Councilmember Matt Weyer noted that prior to 2018, when sole authority over tobacco sales shifted to the state, counties had effectively advanced the anti-tobacco agenda.

“Honolulu was also the county that implemented no smoking in cars with kids,” he said. “The 21 (year) age limit was first imposed by county law on the Big Island. It’s actually pretty recently that the power to regulate tobacco products was taken away from the counties. This really is a framework that I know these kids and public health advocates can take statewide to let the Legislature know that counties are able and ready to protect our community.”

If the legislature does indeed take action to restore the counties’ ability to regulate tobacco sales, Bill 46 would go into effect 42 days later.

The Legislature passed a bill that would ban flavored tobacco products across the state but the measure was vetoed by Gov. Josh Green over concerns about a large class of exemptions.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.