A bill to add vaping as prohibited under the Clean Indoor Air Act is on to the Senate after passing the House last week, with proponents saying it will help to address an issue in Montana’s youth, and opponents saying the bill will not be effective in preventing vaping in kids.
Carrier of Senate Bill 390, Rep. George Nikolakakos, R-Great Falls, said the number of children and health organizations who came to testify in support at the bill’s committee hearing showed the need for the addition. He said the issue of vaping in Montana is two-fold: health and cultural.
“I want the freedom for people to do it in their houses, in their cars, outside where it’s not affecting others, but when young children are watching adults and role models smoking bubble gum vapes openly and anywhere where the Clean Indoor Air Act would be effective, we’re telling them it’s OK and it’s good,” Nikolakakos said.
But Rep. Jedediah Hinkle, R-Belgrade, said vaping is very different than smoking, and should not be treated the same. He said similar bills have died in previous sessions, and he recommended a no-vote for this one as well.
“Vapor is not smoking, it should not be included in here,” Hinkle said. “We put this bill down way back then and apparently it keeps popping up, and now I think we need to put it down again.”
Rep. Curtis Schomer, R-Billings, joined Hinkle in opposition, saying he talked to some of the kids who came to testify and got the impression that the bill would not be effective in addressing the vaping problem in Montana’s youth. Schomer said he asked one of the kids how vaping could be such a problem in their schools when vapes are illegal for minors to purchase.
“You know what that child said to me? ‘To us, laws are just a piece of paper,’” Schomer said.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, responded to Schomer’s statement, saying that while the access problem is not something that the legislature can entirely fix, the “desirability” is something that this law could influence. What she heard in the hearing, Zephyr said, was that the Clean Indoor Air Act reduced smoking rates significantly because kids weren’t constantly exposed to it.
“That reduction was not about access, if a high schooler could go bum a cigarette off of somebody on a convenience store corner,” Zephyr said. “The reason it dropped is because suddenly they weren’t seeing it day in and day out.”
SB 390 passed the House 64-35 on Friday, April 11, and now returns to the Senate with amendments.
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