Governor Newsom Signs Bills to Strengthen Enforcement of California’s Flavored Tobacco Law and Protect Kids from Addiction

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Taking a significant step to protect kids and public health, Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law two bills to strengthen enforcement of California’s landmark law ending the sale of flavored tobacco products. On January 1, 2023, California implemented one of the nation’s strongest laws prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes. But tobacco and e-cigarette companies have sought to evade the law and keep their kid-addicting products on store shelves. The new laws will crack down on these efforts and ensure California’s law works as intended to stop tobacco companies from targeting and addicting kids, Black communities and other populations with flavored products.

We applaud Governor Newsom for signing these bills into law. We also applaud the California leaders who have championed these bills, including Assemblymember Jim Wood, Attorney General Rob Bonta, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senator Susan Rubio. Other co-authors include Assemblymembers Marc Berman, Damon Connolly, Timothy Grayson, Kevin McCarty, Sharon Quirk-Silva, and Akilah Weber, and Senator Anthony Portantino. Their leadership is ensuring that California’s law works as intended to protect kids from tobacco addiction, advance health equity and save lives.

One bill (AB 3218) requires the state Attorney General to establish and maintain a list of unflavored tobacco products, putting the onus on the tobacco industry to demonstrate that a product does not have a flavor and can be legally sold in California. The bill also updates the definition of a prohibited “characterizing flavor” to include products that impart a menthol-like cooling sensation, thereby making it illegal to sell the menthol-like cigarettes that tobacco companies introduced to evade California’s prohibition on the sale of menthol cigarettes. The second bill (SB 1230) authorizes the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to seize illegal, flavored tobacco products discovered during routine tobacco tax inspections.