Maine Highlights

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States and in Maine. To address this enormous toll, the American Lung Association calls for the following actions to be taken by Maine’s elected officials:

The 2024 Maine legislative session resulted in mixed success for tobacco prevention policies. Unfortunately, two top tobacco prevention priorities of the Lung Association did not see enactment during the 2024 legislative session. The Maine House of Representatives failed to pass legislation ending the sale of menthol cigarettes and all flavored tobacco products that passed in the Maine Senate. The failure of the House to advance the bill was disappointing as the proposal is popular with Maine voters with nearly two-thirds of Mainers supporting the measure.

Although the legislature failed to enact a statewide measure, progress continued on the local level with the city of Hallowell joining six other Maine municipalities that have passed comprehensive ordinances ending the sale of menthol and flavored tobacco products. Additionally, the legislature failed to advance the bill to end the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies which previously passed both chambers of the legislature and was carried over to 2024 for final funding and enactment.

Lung Association and partner advocacy activities did yield some success in 2024. Given the evolution and rising popularity of non-combustible tobacco products it was discovered that pouch products such as Zyn and Rogue which used synthetic nicotine were not able to be taxed at the same rate as other tobacco products. In 2019, the Maine Legislature equalized the tax rate of all products and in 2024 we built upon that law to ensure synthetic nicotine products were included. Despite significant tobacco industry efforts to exempt these products from taxation, the measure became law in April of 2024.

The American Lung Association in Maine will continue to work with our coalition partners - the Maine Public Health Association, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and others to advance tobacco control and prevention policies and defend our successful programs and smokefree policies against rollbacks. As the legislature begins its work in 2025, the Lung Association will continue to grow our coalition to educate policymakers, business leaders and the media of the importance of the Lung Association’s goals to reduce tobacco use and protect public health.