March 4, 2025
Senate Committee on Early Childhood and Behavioral Health
Oregon State Capitol
Salem, OR 97301
Re: Opposition to SB 702
Dear Chair Reynolds,
I encourage the Committee to table SB 702.
Tobacco sales are already restricted to those over the age of 21. Adults should be allowed to purchase products that they enjoy, even if others disapprove. Other products such as automobiles are much more hazardous, yet we allow the purchase and use of them because they provide various social benefits.
It may be that tobacco consumers incur long-term medical costs that in some sense are being “externalized” to society, but that issue was addressed 27 years ago in the MSA with tobacco companies. Oregon was one of the states that benefited from the tobacco settlement funds. Not only have tobacco consumers paid for their own long-term medical costs through taxation, they’ve paid for quite a few other programs in Oregon that have nothing to do with smoking.
Sincerely,
John A. Charles, Jr.
President & CEO
