How to Support Anti Smoking Legislation

Smoking legislation is getting more and more strict to keep secondhand smoke away from non-smokers and to keep cigarettes out of the mouths of children. There are may ways to support these new laws and work for a healthier community.

Instructions

1. Contact your state's Department of Health and Human Services to find out what kinds of tobacco legislation is being drafted. Also ask who is writing the proposal and the contact information for the lawmakers' offices.

2. Write letters or call the legislators who are working on tougher anti smoking laws. Ask how you can help drum up support in your district and when the issue will be on the ballot, or if only elected officials will be voting.

3. Organize a grassroots movement to pressure the State Department of Revenue to increase the tax on tobacco products. Submit letters and petitions with signatures of support from your community and make it clear that you want higher taxes to decrease youth smoking. Remember to target products that appeal to teens, like flavored tobacco.

4. Print out fliers and make signs to support the anti smoking legislation when it appears on the ballot. Include the item number and which way to vote for the law to pass, for example, "vote yes on 3" and also list the date that polls are open if it's during a special election.

5. Support anti smoking laws indirectly by rallying behind any legislation that pushes for better state identification cards. Ask for IDs that must be scanned so that they are harder to fake and easier for employees to verify the customer's age during a tobacco sale.

6. Call for steeper fines on businesses that allow the employees or clients to smoke. Also ask for legislation that makes it illegal to smoke in semi-enclosed public areas like bus stops.

Tips & Warnings

• If the anti smoking laws in your state are lenient, contact your representatives and ask them to call for tougher laws to protect the health of their constituents.

• Contacting state senators for nationwide policy changes may help bring up tobacco issues in Washington, but the chances of widespread law changes are slim.

• Legislation often has to go through several editing phases, so expect it to take time for a bill to be written, revised and voted on.

• Lawmakers who work outside of your district will be less likely to respond to your comments because you don't elect them.