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U.S. Supreme Court Upholds California Ban on Flavored Tobacco Products
(CTN News) – The tobacco industry attempted to have a California prohibition on flavored tobacco products blocked by the Supreme Court on Monday, but they were unsuccessful.
Most flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, will no longer be sold thanks to the prohibition, or Proposition 31, which voters resoundingly passed in November.
R.J. Reynolds, a division of British American Tobacco, and other significant tobacco corporations filed the emergency petition to suspend or postpone the bill, which is scheduled to go into force the following week.
The legislation was first enacted two years ago, but tobacco firms were able to bankroll a successful campaign to prevent its implementation and place the matter on this year’s statewide election.
However, the justices maintained the prohibition without justification or any visible opposition.
The Tobacco Control Act of 2009, a federal statute that forbids states from restricting the sale of tobacco products, was used as a defense by R.J. Reynolds, the company that manufactures and distributes Newport menthol cigarettes.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys said in their request for an injunction that “they may increase the minimum buying age, limit sales to certain times and places, and impose licensing regimes.”
They cannot entirely ban the sale of such goods because they do not adhere to the state’s or locality’s approved tobacco product requirements.
The plaintiffs claimed that the bill would result in “significant financial damages” for the cigarette industry. In California, a third of the market is made up of menthol cigarettes, they said in court.
An inquiry for comment made on Monday did not get a prompt response from R.J. Reynolds.
Such restrictions on flavored tobacco products and menthol cigarettes have already been implemented in certain Californian towns, such as Los Angeles and San Diego.
California will pass a statewide ban after Massachusetts, making it the second state in the US to do so once it goes into effect.
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