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After hiking tobacco tax, lawmakers now look at raising smoking age

Rep. Avagafono Vaimaga Maiava
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A bill was introduced in the House Chamber last week to amend the law on tobacco restriction by increasing the smoking age from 18 to 21 and increasing the safeguards to deter youth and young adults from smoking.

The proposed legislation was introduced by Reps. Avagafono Vaimaga Maiava; Alumamalu Ale Filoiali’i; Su’a Alexander Eli Jennings and Andra Tereisa Samoa.

According to the Preamble of the proposed bill, the adverse health effects from tobacco use causes more than 480,000 preventable deaths each year in the United States from heart disease, cancer or other smoking related disease and costs almost $170 billion each year in direct healthcare expenditures.

It states according to the 2016 American Samoa Statistical Yearbook, heart disease and cancer continue to be the top two causes of preventable deaths each year for the last 10 years and according to the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) which conducted both a middle school and high school survey, 20% of 1,8031 survey respondents in grades 6-8 had tried cigarette smoking.

The popularity of tobacco products such as e-cigarettes/ vape pens and variety of flavors available, have made smoking more appealing to youth. This makes it even more critical to ensure that laws are in place to protect our vulnerable population against the long-term health consequences of smoking. According to research, ages 18- 21 are in a crucial point where experimental smoking becomes regular smoking. Increasing the age to 21 also puts most purchasers outside the social circle of most high school students.

Lastly, a 2015 Institute of Medicine report projected, among other measures that adopting a Tobacco 21 policy would result in a 25 percent reduction in youth smoking initiation, a 12 percent drop-in overall smoking rates and approximately 223,000 fewer premature deaths.

Since its creation in 1994, the annual fee for vendors has remained at $25 per year. This fee must be raised to $300, the preamble states and continues: In an effort to help cigarette enforcement, we must be proactive in not only assessing fines against businesses who sell to minors, but we must also prosecute those individuals.

The measure would include a ban on tobacco product advertisements and displays. It would mandate that tobacco products be kept out of sight at any venue or retail store. This includes a prohibition on selling flavored tobacco products except for tobacco or menthol and selling “low” or “high” or “mild” tobacco products, as if they are a better or healthier alternative to regular tobacco products.

It also includes a ban on selling tobacco products one hour before and one hour after normal school hours for all retailers within 100 yards of a school.

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

According to the propose amendments, A.S.C.A 13.1102 (6) “tobacco product” means any product or commodity of which tobacco is a component, “all forms of tobacco products which contain nicotine” including but not limited to cigarette, cigar, raw processed or unprocessed tobacco, chewing tobacco, “electronic delivery systems including e-cigarettes, e-liquids, gels, disolvables, pipe tobacco, suns, dip, snuff, etc.”

It requires a sign be posted saying that it is a violation of the law for cigarettes or other tobacco products to be sold to any person under the age of “21” and it includes a depiction of a pack of cigarettes at least two inches high defaced by a red diagonal line crossing the diameter of a surrounding red circle.

The annual licensing fee is amended from $25 to $300.

It shall be the duty of the Director to implement the purposes of this chapter (A.S.C.A 13.111) and to administer and enforce the law. The director shall “refer any violations to the Attorney General’s (AG) office for criminal prosecution.” Furthermore, “the violations of this chapter are to be referred to the AG’s office and prosecuted as a class A misdemeanor.

NEWLY CREATED SECTIONS 13.1117 - 13.1119.

13.1117: “Prohibitions of flavored and “light” “low” or “mild” tobacco products (13.1117) which reads;

(a) It shall be unlawful to sell flavored tobacco products other than tobacco and menthol flavors;

(b) The territory of American Samoa adopts the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act;

(c) It shall be unlawful for a person to sell or distribute in the territory or to acquire, hold, own, possess or transport for sale or distribution in the territory any tobacco products which are blessed as “light”, “low” or “mild” without a modified risk tobacco product order from the FDA. All products found in volition will be confiscated and destroyed.

13.1118: “Advertisements and display:

(a) It shall be unlawful for a person to advertise or display outdoor and point-of-sale tobacco advertising;

(b) All tobacco products and paraphernalia shall be kept out of sight in venues that admit persons under the age of 21.

13.1119: Sales within school grounds.

(a) Retails sales of tobacco products located within 100 yards of a school shall be prohibited for one (1) hour before and one (1) hour after normal school hours.

BACKGROUND

It was during a House Budget and Appropriations Committee on the Senate bill to increase the tobacco excise tax by 3 cents and reduce the wage tax when representatives brought up the large number of people in American Samoa whoser health is affected because of smoking.

Several representatives believe that a lot of young people including students are affected by the problem of early smoking.

According to one representative, he had seen many students smoking cigarettes with their school uniforms on and it appears that store owners failed on their part to enforce the law which prohibits selling tobacco to people under 18 years.