HB1025 allocates $14.6 million to the Department of Health for “Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Programs.”
The Senate passed HB1025 on April 18, 2024, by a vote of 32 to 0. We have assigned pluses to the nays because anti-tobacco “public health” initiatives are outside the limited purpose and scope of government. This tax-and-spend bill is not just economically harmful, but it entrenches Arkansas in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ever-expanding unconstitutional war on tobacco, which denies basic personal freedoms (e.g., the right to purchase or sell tobacco) while seeking to eradicate an entire industry. An individual’s non-injurious decisions over what they choose to eat, drink, or consume should not be criminalized, for they are private matters not meant to be under federal, state, or local jurisdiction. The Constitution’s Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment protect against the reckless use of taxpayer money and threats to free-market enterprise by arbitrary and discriminatory acts.
