Promoting a Healthier California: Attorney General Bonta Announces New Funding Available for Local Public Agencies Through the 2025-2026 Tobacco Grant Program

Funding helps combat the illegal sale of tobacco products to youth

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced that the California Department of Justice (DOJ) is now accepting proposals for the 2025-2026 Tobacco Grant Program, which will provide approximately $28.5 million in grant funding to eligible local agencies. The program aims to reduce the illegal sale of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to our youth. Any local public agency within the State of California that has authority to enforce tobacco-related state laws or local ordinances related to retail tobacco sales and marketing is eligible to apply. This may include police and sheriffs’ departments, district and city attorneys and county counsels, public health departments, cities, counties, and public school/college districts. Information on the application process is available at oag.ca.gov/tobaccogrants. DOJ will also hold a Zoom webinar on Wednesday, April 30 at 10:00 AM PT to provide guidance to those interested in applying for the Tobacco Grant Program. To RSVP for the webinar, please click here.

“At the California Department of Justice, we are committed to protecting our youth from the dangers posed by tobacco products. The reality is that, especially in recent years, companies have been aggressively going after our young people and attempting to turn as many of them as possible into regular customers,” said Attorney General Bonta. “I encourage local agencies to apply to the Tobacco Grant Program — it is a critical tool that allows us to collaborate and hold accountable those companies and individuals who violate our laws around tobacco products.” 

Companies target our youth by making and marketing tobacco products with a myriad of kid-friendly flavors and loading those products with nicotine, a highly addictive chemical that harms the developing brains of children and young adults. Surveys show flavored tobacco products remain the products of choice for young people. In 2024, among students reporting current e-cigarette use, 87.6% used flavored products. Tobacco usage during adolescence increases the risk for lifelong nicotine addiction and adverse health consequences. 

DOJ’s Tobacco Grant Program aims to reduce childhood addiction to tobacco products by supporting local partners who:

• Enforce the statewide flavor ban and similar local flavor ordinances.
• Prosecute and penalize retailers who violate statewide and local tobacco laws, including those who sell or market tobacco products to youth under the age of 21, including over the internet.
• Conduct retail inspections to ensure compliance.

The program is funded by Proposition 56, the California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016. To date, the Tobacco Grant Program has distributed approximately $212 million in grant funding to approximately 470 grantees through a competitive process.

Attorney General Bonta remains committed to combating the illegal marketing and sale of tobacco products. Just this year, he announced a lawsuit against Flumgio Technology Inc., Berkeley Int’l Business Crew, and their founder, Mr. Zaoyu Zhu, for importing, marketing, and selling the popular FLUM brand e-cigarettes, which are illegal under California’s retail flavor ban and lack Food and Drug Administration authorization. He also announced lawsuits against two California online retailers of e-cigarettes, Ejuicesteals and E-juice Vapor, Inc., alleging that they engaged in unlawful remote sales of tobacco products and failed to verify the age of California consumers properly. Finally, Assembly Bill 3218 — his sponsored bill to help ensure the successful implementation of the flavored tobacco ban — was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom last year.