Concepts and themes to consider related to programme planning and legislative preparations for a state-wide flavoured tobacco ban
Themes | Codes | Sample responses |
Full comprehensive ban |
| ‘My biggest personal takeaway for any tobacco policy is, when it comes to any new bill or law that goes through, once it’s passed, people will adjust. That’s why I’m like really trying to push to make it as strong as possible, because if it passes, if it goes through, they’ll adjust. Everyone will get used to it.’ |
Menthol |
| ‘If it (Hawai'i’s ban) doesn’t include menthol, a number of health groups, like the group I work with, would not support this.’ ‘And the reason these people are using these products, it’s not because they were born to do it. It’s because the industry has very successfully targeted them and taken advantage of them. And to leave menthol out, which is the most important cigarette flavor, is to leave the most vulnerable behind.’ |
Legislative considerations |
| ‘It’s just important not to leave loose ends like that unresolved. If you have people who are inspecting, you’ve got to give them the authority to do their job completely, or else you have to go back to the drawing board and rewrite. Even making a small change to legislation is a pretty big lift, so it’s best to try to put all that authority in the law the first time around.’ |
Economic and financial considerations |
| ‘If a state is relying on the sale of a product that’s killing half of the people who are using it to fund anything, it’s problematic. I think we know that the healthcare costs that are going to be saved as a result of decreasing dependency on smoking cigarettes, or any of their tobacco products, far, far outweigh the revenue that we generated through taxation…And similarly, I think if retailers are relying on the sale of this product as their main lifeblood for staying in business, it might be time to consider selling a different product that’s not so dangerous and damaging to clientele.’ |