Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoes bill barring localities from banning flavored tobacco, e-cigarettes sales
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The city of Columbus, among other city governments in the state, will maintain some of its power after Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill Thursday morning that members of his own party had passed.
House Bill 513 would have prohibited local governments from banning tobacco and e-cigarette sales, but DeWine's decision to veto the legislation means cities are able to pass their own laws on the issue. Columbus City Council unanimously voted to do so in December.
"We have an epidemic in Ohio," DeWine said at a press conference. "We’re dealing now with young people’s lives. When a local community wants to make the decision to ban these flavors to protect children, we should applaud those decisions."
DeWine said two-thirds of students who said they use tobacco products do so because "they come in flavors they like."
Ohio Department of Health Director Doctor Bruce Vanderhoff said the numbers are alarming.
“About a third of our high school students report either using e-cigarettes or vaping, just in the last thirty days,” Vanderhoff said.
Vanderhoff said healthcare costs attributed to smoking total nearly $7 billion in the state annually. Medicaid costs related to smoking amount to nearly $2 billion annually, according to DeWine.
"Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in Ohio," Vanderhoff said. "It’s responsible for more than 20,000 attributable deaths every single year."
Rather than going city-by-city, DeWine said he would be in favor of a statewide ban on flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products. “The easiest way to do this is to have a statewide ban, and we’ll have the uniformity,” he said.
DeWine said the veto, however, does not set a precedent moving forward for other issues, including when it comes to localized gun legislation -- another issue that has turned into a standoff between the state and the city of Columbus. He said the case against H.B. 513 was just too strong to ignore.