Latest News On Tobacco

Latest California Healthline Stories

New Tobacco Tax Bill Touches All Bases

A new bill introduced in the California Legislature yesterday proposes a new tax on cigarettes and electronic cigarettes to raise money for a variety of purposes including solving the managed care tax conundrum, funding regional centers and boosting some Medi-Cal provider rates.

Another Tobacco Bill Off to Governor

Major league baseball players will have to give up the chaw — at least while they’re playing games in California — if the governor signs a ban on smokeless tobacco passed yesterday by the California Legislature.

Tobacco Bills Headed for Senate Floor

A half dozen tobacco bills — including legislation to regulate electronic cigarettes and raise the legal smoking age to 21 — passed the state Senate appropriations committee and are headed for a floor vote.

What’s Behind the Committee Door?

In the scrum of Sacramento politics and influence, some controversial bills are buried into the ground at the committee level. But recently, in a neat political power play, a few given-up-for-dead anti-tobacco bills pulled a little end-around.

Legislation To Regulate E-Cigarettes Is Facing Stiff Resistance in California

Stefan Didak of the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association, Tim Gibbs of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, UC-San Francisco professor Stanton Glantz, state Sen. Mark Leno and Zach Shpizner, a vape shop worker in San Mateo, spoke with California Healthline about proposed legislation to regulate electronic cigarettes as a tobacco product and ban vaping in public places.