About the Plan

​​The Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee (TEROC) was established by the enabling legislation for Proposition 99 (California Health and Safety Code, Sections 104370) which mandates TEROC to: ​

​​Prepare

​Advise

Monitor

Provide

Achieving Health Equity: Toward a Commercial Tobacco-Free California, 2021-2022 Executive Summary

The vision of a commercial tobacco-free California

The tobacco control movement in California has had enormous success in reducing the toll of commercial tobacco use.1 In the 30 years following the passage of Proposition 99, the Tobacco Tax and Health Protection Act of 1988, adult smoking prevalence in California fell from 23.7 percent of adults in 1988 to 10.0 percent in 2019.2 Over roughly the same period, lung cancer mortality rates were cut nearly in half.3 The movement is driven by a vision in which there is no commercial tobacco use in California, only sacred use among Tribes with that tradition. It is important to differentiate between traditional tobacco, which is used in sacred ways by American Indians, and commercial tobacco, produced for recreational use by companies and contains chemical additives linked to death and disease. The mission of the Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee (TEROC) and of the agencies it oversees is to support the right of all Californians to be as healthy as possible, by eliminating tobacco-related disparities and fighting the tobacco industry that exploits communities for profit.

With this strategic plan for 2021-2022, TEROC sets three broad goals:

1.  Effectively inform, engage, and empower stakeholders to eliminate disparities and redress the structural, political, and social determinants that sustain California's tobacco epidemic.
2. Reduce the rates of tobacco use to 8 percent of adults and 8 percent of high school students, with greater-than-proportional reductions among priority populations.
3. Apply lessons learned from tobacco control to address the triangulum of tobacco, cannabis, and e-cigarette use in California.