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CHIEF SPONSOR: Sen. Lisa Reynolds (D-Portland) along with 17 Democratic co-sponsors (and no Republicans).
WHAT IT WOULD DO: Senate Bill 702 would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products or “inhalant delivery system product”—i.e., vapes—and flavored nicotine products, including synthetic nicotine pouches. It would also require that all tobacco products be sold at licensed retailers, an attempt to block people from side-stepping the ban by ordering products online.
PROBLEM IT SEEKS TO SOLVE: Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and in Oregon, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill aims to block access to young customers.
The origins of SB 702 stretch back at least to 2015, when advocates urged the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners to ban flavored tobacco products, whose mint and candylike flavors they argued were seductive to children. As cigarette consumption plummeted in Oregon and nationally, the tobacco industry sought new avenues to young customers. Public health officials, however, warned that vaping carried many of the health risks of smoking.
Washington County in 2021 and Multnomah County in 2022 passed local bans on flavored tobacco products, which were immediately challenged by retailers. Washington County prevailed on appeal, while Multnomah County’s ban remains in limbo. In either case, advocates prefer a statewide ban to patchwork regulation.
WHO SUPPORTS IT: A host of health organizations, including the Oregon Pediatric Society, Health Share of Oregon, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association. (The Lung Association’s 2025 annual report says slightly fewer adult Oregonians smoke than the national average—10.6% versus 10.8%—but the rate of tobacco use among Oregonians of high school age is more than twice the national average.)
“Recognizing that almost all tobacco users begin their use during their adolescence or young adulthood, tobacco companies have spent billions of dollars marketing their products and making them more attractive to young people,” Carrie Nyssen, the Lung Association’s lobbyist testified. “We must counter their attempts to hook the next generation of nicotine-addicted youth to their products.”
WHO OPPOSES IT: The Northwest Grocery Retail Association, convenience stores, vape and tobacco stores, and a swath of people who submitted testimony objecting to the premise that the state, which already prohibits the sale of tobacco products to people under 21, should eliminate sales to adults in order to reduce illegal consumption by children.
Dr. Brian E. Erkkila, a former FDA official who now works for a subsidiary of the tobacco giant Philip Morris International, warned the bill could have unintended consequences. “This would leave Oregonian adults who smoke with less choice and potentially move them back to the most harmful form of tobacco use, combusted cigarettes,” Erkkila testified. (Erkkila’s employer makes the popular Zyn nicotine pouches, which SB 702 would ban.)
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: Although Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers, passage will require some heavy lifting. A similar bill died in 2023, and the tobacco industry and its allies have killed many such bills across the country. After a March 4 hearing before Reynolds’ Early Childhood and Behavioral Health Committee, the bill awaits further action.
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering rural Oregon.