Why has it been so difficult to pass the cigarette tax in California?

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California is a health-conscious state and smoking has significant health risks so why has it been so difficult to pass the extra tax on cigarettes? It would have been nice to have smokers help pay for curative research instead of shifting the costs to the general population, or instead of not having any money to help take care of people who have smoked themselves into poor health. As it is, the smoke-free parts of the UCSD campus are not always smoke free because construction workers still smoke there and expose all passersby to second-hand smoke...is no one else bothered by the second-hand smoke and health costs from smokers?