Lawmakers Chewing on Bill To Ban Bubble Gum Cigars
03/25/1999
By Gypsy Hogan
Staff Writer
Paula Mischke looked over the pink and blue bubble gum cigars, trying to imagine why anyone would want to make them illegal. Normally, the gum cigars are sold to happy fathers who want to continue a tradition in a nontobacco way, said the gift shop manager at Integris' Baptist Medical Center.Or they are bought by happy friends for a traditional celebration with the parents, she said.
For those who are opposed to tobacco, bubble gum cigars are the politically correct way to celebrate a birth in an old-fashioned way.
It's a new tradition that could pop as fast as an overblown bubble with passage of House Bill 1602, which passed out of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday.
"There shall be no nontobacco item sold in this state ... designed to resemble tobacco products, including but not limited to bubble gum cigars and candy cigarettes," reads the bill written by Rep. Ray Vaughn, R-Edmond.
The bill also prohibits tobacco product advertising on school property or school attire, all intended to protect children from marketing ploys, he said. Senate committee members passed the bill Wednesday without discussion of its limitations.
"I was surprised, too, that we didn't talk about it," said Sen. Ben H. Robinson, D- Muskogee, who presented the bill.
"I'm not sure that I'm all for it -- especially the way it is written," he said after the meeting. "As much against smoking as I am, I'm not sure about telling people what to wear."
Robinson told committee members the bill was similar to one passed out of the Senate earlier -- with the exception of the first section, with the unmentioned dress and bubble gum cigar provisions.
The rest of the bill establishes a fund that is to be supported by tobacco product manufacturers who do not support the master settlement agreement. That agreement was sealed in 1998 between the nation's major tobacco manufacturers and states, including Oklahoma, participating in a lawsuit seeking damages for tobacco-related injuries and death.
The proposed state fund will be used to prevent companies not participating in the master settlement from having a competitive advantage over participants. And, the bill says, to prevent those nonparticipating companies from "deriving large, short- term profits and then becoming judgment- proof before liability may arise."
The fund for nonparticipants is part of a recommendation of the attorneys general who worked out the master settlement agreement, said Gerald Adams, spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.
Edmondson's office has requested legislation that will create such a state fund for nonparticipating tobacco manufacturers.
Robinson, however, does not see HB 1601 being passed as currently written.
"My guess is that both bills will go to conference, and one will come out with the model legislation" for the manufacturers' fund. The bubble gum cigar section will go into the other bill, he said.
"I don't think we want to jeopardize anything there," he said, expressing concerns that the bubble gum cigar section could be a problem.
Vaughn said Wednesday that his section one provisions are all from the master settlement agreement -- provisions that the tobacco industry agreed not to lobby against.
Yes, he said, he realized that some people use the cigars to celebrate family births.
"I don't know how you can carve out an exception for something like that," he said later Wednesday.
"I think it's better policy that we don't have tobacco- resembling products for children to play with," he said.
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