House Bill 756 banning the sale of flavored vapes in Hawaii is up for consideration at the Legislature this year, and it must be enacted. Health advocates agree the flavored-tobacco delivery devices are damaging for all users, and particularly teens. Eliminating access would be an important step toward subduing use of vapes altogether, and the less the better.

Another bill, HB 380, would give counties back the authority to adopt laws regulating tobacco and vape sales. While HB 380 is timely and worthwhile, HB 756 is a decidedly better option, since it aims to protect youth statewide.

Most opposition arises from those who support sales for the benefit of Hawaii’s economy — not only as a profit center for retailers, but as a significant source of tax revenue for the state. Many small business owners oppose the ban, as flavored vapes make up a respectable portion of their tobacco sales. The National Tax Foundation piped up from Washington, D.C., to testify that a ban could cost Hawaii more than $25 million in revenue.

Ironically, however, the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii Youth Council submitted testimony stating that the tobacco industry spends $26 million on marketing annually. Seems like it could be a wash.

Let’s be real: With their documented and dangerous health effects, vapes and cigarettes are legal only because of the entrenched position tobacco sales plays in Hawaii’s economy — that and the “hundreds of thousands of dollars (spent) on lobbying in Hawaii alone,” as the Youth Council testified.

Cigarettes are in the privileged position of having been ubiquitous worldwide before people knew how toxic they were, and the industry has been able to hold on to that head start by spreading lots of money around for lobbying, advertising, marketing, swag (free gifts) and research into multistream options to keep people hooked.

So while the end goal should be to ban cigarettes and vapes altogether, getting flavored vapes off the shelves is an important and necessary step.

Step by step, the state has acted to make tobacco products of all types — all of which impose health hazards on users — less available and more expensive, and that has produced results. In 2023, the state tightened regulations and hiked its general excise tax on vapes and vape liquids to 70% of the wholesale price, expecting the high taxes to reduce demand.

Efforts to ban flavored vapes and flavored tobacco, however, have not gone so well, and that’s hurting Hawaii’s people. Especially local youths, who are particular targets of the sweet and fruit-flavored chemicals being inhaled. Hawaii has the third-highest e-cig usage rate in the U.S., with 1 in 3 public high school students saying they vape regularly.

Frustrated with the state’s failure to act, Honolulu’s City Council passed a bill to ban flavored tobacco products of all kinds, whether in cigarettes, e-cigs or any other vaping device, and in October 2023, Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed it. Only problem: The bill has no effect, because in 2018, the Legislature took away the counties’ power to regulate tobacco products. HB 380 would restore counties’ power.

Menthol cigarettes, sold in the U.S. since the 1950s, have been a staunch sticking point in the effort to ban flavored tobacco products. So yes, they need to go, but let’s get flavored vaping products off the shelves first, and come back to that.

Teens and young adults are most likely to use flavored vapes. These expose them to toxic by-products that cause lung damage, respiratory disease and cancers, plus mental effects including memory and mood disorders stemming from nicotine’s addictive properties.

Vaping has moved beyond novelty for many teens and young adults, and continues to gain popularity — partly because for many, nicotine is addictive, and once exposed, a user often continuously increases intake.

Before this practice becomes even more entrenched, and yet another generation is hooked on these potent, insidious chemicals, let’s put a stop to flavored vapes.