HJLR May/Jun 2019

Healthcare Journal of little rock I  MAY / JUN 2019 49 Institute designation by providing funding from the existing medical marijuana tax and an increase in the tax on a pack of cigarette papers from 25 cents to 75 cents. Also approved was House Bill 1263 by Rep. Les Eaves, R-Searcy, now Act 651 of 2019, which will allow pharmacists to dis- pense tobacco-cessation products under a statewide protocol, and without a doc- tor’s prescription. Unfortunately, there were also several setbacks in the effort to reduce smoking in the state. Late in the session, there was an effort to significantly raise cigarette taxes and add taxes to e-cigarettes in an effort to reduce smoking. However, the powerful vaping and tobacco industry Those figures caught the attention of policymakers, as did the news of a national surge in e-cigarette use by young people. Among the bills filed in this year’s legislative session were several that sought to address smoking and vaping. Most notable among them was House Bill 1565 by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, nowAct 580 of 2019. The new law raises the minimumage to purchase tobacco products, vaping products, and cigarette papers from 18 to 21, with exemptions for people who serve in the military or have reached age 19 by December 31 of this year. It also helps the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in its effort to achieve a National Cancer Joseph W. Thompson, MD, MPH Director, Arkansas Center for Health Improvement successfully blocked the bill’s progress, and it died in committee. The new law raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products also contains a bitter pill for local tobacco control efforts. Apro- vision inAct 580 prohibits cities and coun- ties from regulating tobacco products more strictly than the state. The legislation also originally included a provision that would have automatically reduced taxes on prod- ucts designated as “modified-risk tobacco products”, if and when the Food and Drug Administration grants such a designation, but that section was removed during the committee process after legislators raised concerns about the windfall that might ac- crue to tobacco companies for tax reduc- tions that would far outweigh the risk re- duction generated. I am sorry to say that as of this writing, it appears likely our new casinos will be ex- empted from the Clean Indoor Air Act, ex- posing even more workers to second-hand tobacco exposure. With countless other issues competing for attention, our elected representatives got a good dose of information about the devastating impact smoking has on the health of Arkansans, and the potential that e-cigarettes have to make the problem even worse by facilitating addiction at an early age. As pressing as these issues are, we must act. Items that should be on the agenda in the future include adding vaping restrictions and closing loopholes in our clean indoor air law, establishing a tax structure for e- cigarettes to address the ongoing effects of nicotine addiction, and enforcing existing restrictions to ensure their effectiveness. But policymakers can only do so much; let’s all pledge to stamp out smoking in our lives and encourage our friends and family to do the same. See ACHI’s infographic on smoking-at- tributable costs to Medicaid: https://achi. net/library/smoking-attributable-costs/ n