American Samoa Senate Passes Bill to Revise Tobacco Restrictions

According to a report from Samoanews on March 7th, the American Samoa Fagatogo Senate passed a bill aimed at amending the existing tobacco control law. The bill, introduced by Senator Magalei Logovi'i, proposes to raise the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 and crack down on local retailers selling tobacco products, by increasing the annual license fee from $25 (which has remained unchanged since 1994) to $300 per year.

The bill was passed by declaring:

Licenses must be updated before January 1st each year. It is a violation to continue selling or distributing tobacco products without a valid license or renewal after January 1st each year. Updating our tobacco restriction laws to keep pace with new and ever-evolving tobacco and nicotine products targeting youth is crucial. We remain committed to protecting our young people from the harms of tobacco consumption.

The preamble of the bill cites, "Due to the adverse health effects caused by tobacco use, over 480,000 Americans die each year from preventable diseases such as heart disease, cancer, or other smoking-related illnesses, and the country spends nearly $170 billion annually on direct healthcare costs."

The bill also provides local statistical data collected in 2022, outlining the harmful effects of tobacco use on American Samoan teenagers. According to the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), nearly 13% of the 1,831 survey respondents reported using e-cigarettes.

The bill proposes to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, with the actual initiative being launched by the federal government on December 20, 2019. At that time, they amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to make it illegal for retailers to sell any tobacco products to individuals under the age of 21.

Currently, 32 states and territories, including Guam, have passed revisions to federal legislation known as "Tobacco 21".

The proposed Senate bill condemns tobacco companies for unabashedly using advertising to make their "tobacco and nicotine products appealing to minors and young adults." As a result, the bill prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products other than menthol and considers them illegal. This includes but is not limited to electronic delivery systems such as e-cigarettes, e-liquid, aerosol, dissolvables, waterpipe tobacco, smokeless tobacco, and nasal snuff. Violators will be referred to the Attorney General's Office and prosecuted as Class A misdemeanors.

The penalty range is as follows: for the first violation, no less than $1,000, for the second violation, no less than $2,000, for the third violation, no less than $3,500, and for subsequent violations, a penalty of $5,000 per violation.

The bill was unanimously passed with a vote of 13-0 during yesterday's routine session in the Senate.

The bill passed its third reading unanimously with a vote of 13-0 at yesterday's regular session of the Senate.