California advocates’ perspectives on challenges and risks of advancing the tobacco endgame

Abstract

In the USA, California’s highly-regarded Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) has defined its goal as “ending the tobacco epidemic for all population groups” by 2035. To understand local advocates’ perceptions of endgame-oriented policies, we interviewed 28 advocates from California communities that had recently adopted tobacco control policies. There was no consensus among participants on which specific policies would constitute the tobacco endgame in California. There was an agreement, however, that policymakers should promote policies that would impact communities with the highest tobacco use prevalence and that policies should be ‘clean’, avoiding exemptions. Participants were cognizant of California’s history of tobacco control policy innovations beginning locally and eventually being adopted at the state level. Many commented that recent policy innovations in the state had begun a conversation that made more ‘radical’ ideas seem possible. California tobacco control advocates are engaged in local endgame policy discussions and prepared to advance California’s endgame goal.