LOS ANGELES – California legislators are pushing a handful of anti-smoking measures in an effort to lead the country in low smoking rates and public health.

"We used to be leaders, and we are not anymore," Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, told the LA Times. Lawmakers are hoping to respond through legislative action.

The recent anti-tobacco proposals would:

• Increase the legal smoking age from 18 to 21;
• Increase the state’s cigarette excise tax by $2 per pack (currently 87 cents per pack);
• Bar electronic cigarettes from public places where smoking is prohibited; and
• Ban single-use filters on cigarettes and prohibit the use of chewing tobacco in pro baseball stadiums and recreational league games.

The news source notes that the last 17 attempts to increase the state’s cigarette excise tax have failed. Voters narrowly rejected a $1 tax increase on the 2012 ballot, a measure the tobacco industry heavily fought. 

Richard J. Smith, a manager for Reynolds American Inc., told the news source that California policymakers "may best serve the public and public health by a comprehensive look at their tobacco laws and regulations rather than a multitude of bills addressing different aspects of policy in a piecemeal approach."

In the 1990s, California was home to the most wide-ranging anti-smoking laws in the United States. The state’s smoking rate is second-lowest in the nation, behind Utah, but health officials say anti-smoking efforts are suffering because the cigarette excise tax hasn’t changed since 1998.