Does 2013 offer hope for anti-tobacco, anti-texting bills in Oklahoma?

State Health Commissioner Terry Cline says his office will try again to get a “local control” bill through the Legislature. In Oklahoma, municipalities aren't allowed to enact tobacco-related rules that are more strict than state law. Cline and others have been working to change that, armed with statistics that highlight the toll, in lives and health care costs, that smoking takes on Oklahomans.

This year, a House bill that would have let local governments adopt ordinances to control smoking in public places didn't make it through a Senate committee. The committee chairman said that bill's ultimate goal was unclear. In 2011, overly broad language derailed a local control bill. That measure had the potential to give cities and towns the ability to regulate how tobacco products were displayed in stores, advertised and even taxed, which understandably had retailers nervous.