West Virginia has one of the worst the country’s young people smoking and spit tobacco use rates, but members of the House Health Committee do not believe the flavored tobacco targeting is the answer.

Board of Health and Human Resources in slow motion on the proposed ban this week, but condemning the measure. The bill has until Friday to clear both that committee and the House of court as a 60-day legislative session winds down.

In 2009, federal law prohibits flavored cigarettes. Sponsored by House Health Chairman Don Perdue, the bill will be that the ban at the state level, as well as its extension related products such as cigars and smoke hookah tobacco and soluble.

Tobacco companies offer this product in such flavors as chocolate, vanilla, cherry, peach and mango. Declaring that such products are flavored to entice minors, the bill will enter the state ban on flavored “bidis” self-made tobacco products. The bill releases menthol, peppermint or wintergreen flavored products.

Delegate Carol Miller doubts about who should control the safety of adult products from the hands of children.

“Who is responsible for this? Is it the responsibility of the government, or is it the responsibility of parents?” Cabell County Republican said during a debate Monday committee bill.

Surrounding states have no such prohibitions. Delegate Tiffany Lawrence, D-Jefferson, cited the potential impact of the West Virginia retailers, especially in border areas like hers.

“A lot of times if we do not allow anything, they will travel across the border in Hagerstown, Maryland, and return it to kind of underground,” Lawrence said. “We really have not achieved our goal.”

Delegate Patrick Lane said the ban could damage the plant Swisher International in Wheeling, which makes flavored cigars. Lane, R-Kanawha, contained a statement from one of several tobacco lobbyists during the meeting, which warned that the offense is a misdemeanor and $ 500 to $ 5,000 fine threat to the bill will cost 160 workers at their jobs.

Delegate Linda Goode Phillips agreed, noting that the language in the anti-bidi-law prohibiting the importation, sale and distribution of this product.

“Even if they try to do anything outside the state, they will continue to spread, because they will be located in Wheeling”, said Phillips, D-Wyoming, and elementary school counselor.

Delegate Margaret strikes, D-Fayette, and a physician, questioned whether the measure to ban flavored cigar club offers exotic husband.

Various federal statistics are last decade, West Virginia ranked in the top five among states for teenage smoking and using chewing tobacco. Perdue, D-Wayne and a pharmacist told the Committee that the State also has one of the worst rates for tobacco use among pregnant teenagers. For all the people, tobacco use is the leading cause of death and disease in West Virginia, according to the state Office of Public Health.

“The real question is, do not taste the poison to make it so that you will use poison, because it takes the better?” Perdue said. “The answer is of course, yes. If you could taste the cyanide that he tastes like chocolate, we have people dying everywhere.”

Perdue referred to the various issues raised during the meeting on Monday, before the bill be postponed for the moment.

“I know that the industry has worked very hard all of you today,” said Perdue. “I know that there is a huge aversion to the possibility that we can reduce income or job, or what have you.”

Tags: tobacco ban

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