Free Republic

(CNN)"The legislature finds that the cigarette is considered the deadliest artifact in human history." So begins the text of a new bill introduced in Hawaii's State House, calling for a phased ban on cigarette sales in the state by 2024. Hawaii has some of the most restrictive cigarette laws in the nation. In 2016, it became the first state to raise the age to buy cigarettes to 21. Now, its new bill calls for raising the cigarette-buying age to 30 by next year, up to 40, 50 and 60 in each subsequent year, and up to 100 by 2024. That...

HONOLULU (KHON2) - Hawaii could be the first state in the U.S. to ban the sale of cigarettes, if a current proposal becomes law. Adults younger than age 30 could be legally prohibited from buying cigarettes in less than a year's time -- and all cigarette sales would be banned in Hawaii in five years -- under a bill by State Representative Richard Creagan. The bill was co-signed by Representatives John Mizuno, also a Democrat, and Cynthia Thielen, a Republican. "We're taxing them, that did decrease use somewhat, but we still have 140,000 people in our state that smoke cigarettes....

Hawaii State Rep. John Mizuno, a Democrat from Kalihi Valley, issued a press release on August 30 demanding an apology and retraction of a letter to the editor published in Hawaii Reporter on August 23. He also threatened to file criminal and civil charges through the state attorney general over the posting, which Mizuno said included "false and misleading statements." But he later retracted that threat. The letter, authored by James Macey, was a less than complimentary opinion piece about a hearing he attended on August 8 that was run by Mizuno and peace activists looking to quell violence in...