With the next hearing rapidly approaching AB 1500 has been on my mind

Quick note: the AB 1500 hearing has been re-scheduled for next week... 05/21/2014

AB 1500:  Dickinson wants to make online purchasing so onerous that consumers would effectively be forced to buy from local stores rather than online, all so that the state can raise an additional estimated $24 million in tax revenue.

Or at least that’s where things started.

Somewhere along the way the target of the bill ‘Cigarettes, tobacco products, and electronic cigarettes” became just “Electronic cigarettes” And the individuals restricted from purchasing online changed from “persons in California” to “person under 18 years of age”

I wonder how much tax revenue Dickinson expects to raise by forcing persons “under 18 years of age” to buy their electronic cigarettes from local stores rather than online?...

None? Wait! What? Oh, that’s right, because a “person under 18 years of age” can’t legally purchase electronic cigarettes in California in the first place. So it’s clear that Dickinson isn't after tax revenue any more. Right? So what is he up to?

According to comments from the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization hearing April 30, 2014 the purpose of the bill is to extend age verification procedures that are already in place for the delivery of tobacco products to e-cigarettes, and that “This will help safeguard against minors having access to e-cigarettes.”

Keeping electronic cigarettes out of the hands of minors is a laudable goal, but…Is Dickinson saying that adult consumers should be forced to buy from local stores rather than online in order to make it harder for minors to get e-cigarettes? Is he really suggesting restricting the options of adults… of voters to lawfully purchase a legal product just so that he can make the dubious claim that his bill has helped keep electronic cigarettes away from minors?

Well, maybe, but that ignores the fact that SB 882, Chapter 310, Statutes of 2010 made it unlawful for a person to sell or otherwise furnish an e-cigarette to a person under 18 years of age… Anyone currently providing e-cigarettes to minors is already breaking the law, and adding another layer of law isn’t likely to dissuade them from continuing. It also ignores the fact that anyone purchasing electronic cigarettes online is using a credit card…  

Let’s just stop and think about that for a moment. If your child is using your credit card, with or without your knowledge and permission, then, to be blunt, it’s an issue of bad parenting. And if your child is making online purchases with a stolen credit card then electronic cigarettes are the least of your worries.

So where does that leave AB 1500?  Well, I’m not inside Dickinson’s head, which is probably a good thing for my personal sanity, but it seems to me that to understand AB 1500  we need only go back to the beginning. Dickinson wants to make online purchasing so onerous that consumers would effectively be forced to buy from local stores rather than online.  Not to raise revenue, and not to keep e-cigs from minors, but to make it harder for anyone to purchase electronic cigarettes at all, because, you know, that vague sense that anything with even a passing resemblance to smoking, must somehow be bad… unless it’s marijuana, complete with its higher than cigarette tar, carbon monoxide, benzene and toluene levels,  THAT get’s legalized.