Oregon Senate Bill 702 introduced to tackle rising youth nicotine consumption
- Karmen Zhao, Staff Writer
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
On Jan. 13, 2025, Senate Bill 702, a progressive piece of legislation that aims to ban youth access to flavored tobacco and nicotine products, was introduced by Oregon lawmakers.
The bill addresses the rising youth addiction rates to flavored vapes and other nicotine goods, listing specific flavors or scents like “menthol, mint, wintergreen, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla, honey or molasses or any fruit, candy, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice.”
Willamette alumna Hayley Freedman (’09), the 2024-25 Mark and Melody Teppola distinguished presidential visiting professor in the Public Health Ethics, Advocacy, and Leadership (PHEAL) program, explained that the bill predominantly targets nicotine delivery devices, such as vapes, Juuls and other e-cigarettes that are flavored. “Vapes are pretty much exclusively flavored. It’s a chemical version of a tobacco product, right? Otherwise, without flavor, smoking is not very attractive,” Freedman said. “Who are they targeting? Kids and young people. They are selling products that are attractively packaged, appear fun, and mask the awful taste of tobacco or chemicals.”
Freedman noted that even though there are restrictions on tobacco and nicotine products being purchased for or sold to minors under the age of 21, youth are still able to access them illegally if they can obtain them from older siblings, friends, relatives or tobacco retailers who do not scan for ID.
Additionally, 2022 data provided by the Truth Initiative, released on April 5, 2024, highlighted the statistics of different nicotine products used by youth. Specifically, the data noted that “10.8% of 11th graders in Oregon used electronic vapor products on at least one day in the past 30 days.”
With most brands of vapes such as ELFBAR, Juice Head, and Flum coming in bright-colored packaging while advertising flavors such as cotton candy and watermelon, Freedman noted that “the biggest danger of vaping is people getting hooked on nicotine at a young age when they aren’t even aware of the harms.” She expressed that the health consequences of vaping are still actively being researched, however, nicotine addiction is its current most harmful effect. With smoking being the number one leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, vapes are an important component of the smoking epidemic.
Though it is commonly known that vaping is the act of inhaling aerosol nicotine, “some people argue that it is a cessation device,” said Kiera Atkinson (’25), an economics and public health major who actively leads efforts to raise awareness about the tobacco epidemic. Atkinson explained that smoking cessation devices are products that help people quit smoking by replacing nicotine cravings with nicotine patches, gum, prescription medication or other methods without cigarettes. “These flavored vapes aren’t FDA-approved as cessation devices,” Atkinson said, clarifying that Bill 702 states that FDA-approved cessation devices would not be illegalized if the bill passes.
On March 4, 2025, a public hearing was held, during which the floor was open to verbal testimony and submitted written testimony about the public’s thoughts behind this bill. In attending the hearing regarding Bill 702, Atkinson reflected that there were people who attended in support of the bill but also people who were in opposition of it. She stated, “There were people wearing these blue T-shirts that said, ‘Save Our Stores,’ who were people who owned a small franchise like a convenience store that sells flavored nicotine products.” These small business owners argued that they have always scanned IDs for any sales made on tobacco and nicotine goods, expressing that the concerns lie in improper training of employees, which is a solvable issue.
“I think the biggest argument this bill makes is to try to turn you away from tobacco by showing how gross it can be. You might try a cigarette or a non-flavored vape and it just tastes gross without the yummy flavoring. I think that the goal of the bill is just to get youth to stop smoking,” Atkinson stated. “It’s not directly targeting adults and their smoking usage.”
Freedman noted that campaigns such as Flavors Hook Oregon Kids and progressive research like the 2018 Oregon Tobacco and Alcohol Retail Assessment (TARA) Project help in highlighting nicotine misuse within minors. Flavors Hook Oregon Kids is a movement of over 60 organizations with the united purpose of protecting youth from tobacco addiction through passing Bill 702. Its website argues that the tobacco industry builds lifelong customers by “targeting children and other vulnerable groups with candy-like flavors and deceptive marketing.”
As an active advocate for the TARA Project, Atkinson outlined that its purpose is to gather data about all the tobacco retailers in the state of Oregon. Having surveyed over 2,000 tobacco retailers across Oregon, the TARA Project is continuously obtaining data about the tobacco product placements and availability within each franchise. It observes how these goods are advertised and who target audiences are, providing information for how future guidelines could be written to combat the tobacco industry.
Along with being an advocate for the TARA project, Atkinson has also created a survey in order to “understand the Willamette Community's interest and familiarity with current bills proposed in Oregon regarding tobacco.” It outlines the objectives and varying perspectives of Senate Bill 702 and also makes note of other bills, such as Senate Bill 544, House Bill 2053, and House Bill 2528.
Additionally, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has released a statement regarding Bill 702, stating, “Cancer patients, survivors, teen advocates, and others from throughout Oregon” have spoken to legislators on April 1, 2025 with hopes to end the tobacco industry targeting their products towards youth. April 1 has been named “Take Down Tobacco National Day of Action,” in which youth communities express their concerns about the tobacco industry. Advocates within the ACS note that companies utilize flavored products to draw in a certain crowd of customers, which ultimately leads to a rise in death rates and health care costs within Oregon.
According to the ACS website, they are partnered with a wide range of governing cities, including Oregon City, Salem, Happy Valley, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Newport, Depoe Bay, Siletz and Waldport. They also collaborated with various school boards, such as Parkrose, Tualatin-Tigard and Klamath Falls. All these cities and school boards working alongside the ACS have made statements towards the Oregon State Legislature to end the sales of flavored tobacco products.
On April 8, a work session was scheduled for the Senate Committee On Early Childhood and Behavioral Health to discuss the topics of Bill 702 and voted to send it towards further processing by the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue.
“There's a lot of bipartisan support for Bill 702 now that the initial hearing has happened and it is in its next stage,” Freedman stated. Should this bill be passed, it will not go into full effect until the summer of 2026, allowing time for tobacco retailers to enact changes to their businesses to fit the demands of the bill.
As Bill 702 targets the root problem of youth nicotine addiction, Freedman noted, “It's really easy when we think about habits like vaping and smoking to assign blame to the person who's vaping and smoking. I think we need to do a better job of really pointing blame where it's due, which is the Tobacco Industry which is predatory and aggressive.”
Freedman concluded that though it is an individual’s choice to purchase and use these items, “we're neglecting the power of social pressure, marketing, social media, and advertising, all of these things coalescing together to be really influential.”
More updates on the movement of this bill can be seen on the Oregon State Legislature website under SB 702.