The end of May meant the end of the Oklahoma Legislature’s current session. With that, a variety of proposed tobacco-related laws. Oklahoma is now the sixth state to have a minimum purchasing age increased proposed this year, and the sixth state where such measure failed. Under the proposed H.B. 1970, the state would have increased the age to purchase tobacco to 19. This bill failed to get out of committee. Three different smoking bans also failed. Sen. Frank Robinson, R-Springer, introduced two pieces of legislation: S.B. 36 would have allowed local governments to introduce stricter smoking laws, the other, S.B. 491, made all state-owned buildings smoke-free, banned smoking within 15 feet of a public entrance and made designated smoking rooms in buildings illegal. Both of these bills failed to exit committee. Sen. Wayne Shaw, R-Grove, introduced S.B. 1185 which would have banned smoking indoors at business where food or beverages are served. It also failed to leave committee.
↧