Groups concerned with health issues offered a dire prognosis in the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signing of a bill that preempts local governments from regulating the marketing, sale or transportation of tobacco or nicotine goods.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1080 into law on May 17. On its face, the measure looks like an effort to restrict access to tobacco and nicotine products by raising the lawful age to purchase such goods from 18 to 21.
But the group Tobacco 21, as well as the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, opposed the bill for multiple reasons, including the preemption against local governments that favor additional tobacco regulations.
“We believe that local laws are the way to go,” Shannon Quinby, the eastern regional director for Tobacco 21, told the Florida Record. “We just saw this as a Republican power grab to preempt counties and cities from passing tobacco sales laws.”
As an example of the problems created by the bill, which takes effect Oct. 1, Quinby said a county that concluded it was having problems with teen vaping in schools could not address it through a local licensing ordinance. And not only would future local ordinances regulating tobacco sales and marketing be banned, but so will similar ordinances already in place around the state, she said.
“All local ordinances and resolutions that were passed are immediately overturned,” Quinby said
Litigation over the bill is also a possibility, especially since local stakeholders don’t want to see local authority limited on an issue that affects public health, she said.
“We are having conversations with potential plaintiffs … who have an interest already because they have a law in place,” Quinby said, adding that a Florida constitutional amendment passed in 2006 might give opponents a basis to overturn the bill.
In approving Amendment 4, Florida voters sought to ensure the best practices of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be used in tobacco education and prevention programs. But SB 1080 prevents local governments from following CDC best-practices recommendations, according to Quinby.
“This preemption might cause the state to run afoul of their own constitution,” she said. “It’s really a mess.”
Supporters of the legislation say the local preemption provision is needed to simplify enforcement of the tobacco and nicotine regulations and avoid a patchwork of local ordinances that are difficult for retailers with multiple outlets around the state to follow.
The state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation has been tasked with putting in place regulations to enforce the new tobacco law.