Anti-Smoking Bill Gains in Assembly
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SACRAMENTO — Buoyed by intense support from the California Medical Assn., an anti-smoking bill banning the distribution of free cigarettes survived scrutiny by an Assembly committee Monday that many consider a burial ground for such measures.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), still faces a battle in the full Assembly where it could be scuttled by the powerful tobacco lobby, which has sunk nearly a dozen other anti-smoking measures this year.
“This was our toughest hurdle,” Bergeson said after her bill was approved by the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee, chaired by Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson), an inveterate smoker.
The bill would prohibit tobacco companies from giving out free samples in public places, particularly street corners and sidewalks, a marketing practice Bergeson and the CMA contend gets cigarettes into the hands of minors and starts them early on a lifelong habit.
Last year, tobacco companies distributed 97 million cigarettes in free samples throughout the state--more than three for every California citizen, said Bergeson.
Stopping that practice has become the top legislative priority of anti-smoking forces.
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