SACRAMENTO — The bill to keep bubble gum cigarettes out of the hands of children had heavyweight backing.

Supporters included the California Medical Assn., American Cancer Society, American Heart Assn., American Lung Assn., California Council on Alcohol Problems, League of California Cities and the California Children's Lobby.

The sole organized opposition: the National Assn. of Chewing Gum Manufacturers.

But the bill never got out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It died there in January, for the second time in a year, a casualty in the heated national debate over whether food products that look like tobacco lead children to use the real thing.

"I think there was an honest disagreement," said Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), who supported the bill. "Are we taking away from kids something that is really playful and not harmful?"

Bubble gum and candy cigarettes have been around for decades but legislative attempts to control them have gained support only recently as medical experts have become concerned over advertisements and other messages that positively portray tobacco use by young people.

During the last year, legislation similar to the California bill has been introduced in Congress, as well as in New York and Oregon. Those measures have failed to pass, but a similar bill has been introduced in Utah.

The California measure, proposed by Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), would have imposed civil fines for the sale to minors of food products that are manufactured or packaged to look like tobacco.

Targets of the legislation included bubble gum and candy cigarettes--some of which emit puffs of sugar powder and are packaged in boxes with logos resembling cigarette brands. The bill would have prohibited selling children shredded bubble gum that comes in pouches like chewing tobacco, as well as bubble gum and beef jerky in little round containers resembling snuffboxes.

Opponents of the legislation argued that bubble gum cigarettes and similar products are simply fun and in some cases are used as alternatives to tobacco.

But citing a recent study, as well as their own intuition, backers of the legislation contended that such products are dangerous because they make tobacco attractive to children.

Some backers of Thompson's legislation also contend that tobacco companies are pleased with the free advertising gained from confectionary cigarettes sold in packages that resemble real brands.