San Diego City Council will vote Monday on an ordinance that bans the sale of candy and dessert flavored tobacco that are heavily marketed toward youth by tobacco companies.
City leaders will discuss the implementation of The Stop Adolescent Addiction to Flavored E-Cigarettes (SAAFE) Act to regulate the sale of flavored tobacco. The ordinance makes it unlawful for any tobacco or electronic cigarette retailer to sell or distribute flavored tobacco products.
This does not apply to the sale of shisha, premium cigars, or loose-leaf tobacco.
According to the California Department of Public Health, e-cigarettes are available in over 15,000 flavors, many appealing to youth, such as cotton candy, bubble gum, or “unicorn poop". Some flavored tobacco products share the names, packaging, and flavor chemicals as popular candy brands like Jolly Rancher and Life Savers.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 7 in May 2016, which aimed to change the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21. According to a City Staff report, the city of San Diego has not since updated the adoption of Senate Bill 7 to reflect the current legal age of 21.
In response to the growing youth vaping epidemic, at least 335 local governments, and three states, including Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island, passed restrictions on selling flavored tobacco products. Joining their efforts on Aug. 28, 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 793, known as the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, banning the sale of specified flavored tobacco products in California, with exceptions for hookah tobacco, loose-leaf tobacco, and premium cigars.
A coalition of major tobacco companies including Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and ITG Brands, labeling themselves the so-called “California Coalition for Fairness” challenged the bill through a signature-gathering referendum that will go before the voters on November 8.
The Tobacco industry spent $20 million in an attempt to overturn legislation, according to San Diegans Vs. Big Tobacco, a coalition of health, parent, and community organizations. In October 2021, the coalition rallied to pressure the Mayor and City Council of San Diego and Chula Vista to pass local ordinances to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products.
San Diego is one of the largest cities in the state without an ordinance ending the sale of flavored tobacco products. Once ordinances are adopted by San Diego and Chula Vista, they will join more than 100 cities and counties statewide, including San Francisco, San Jose, Long Beach, and Sacramento that are cracking down on the sale of flavored tobacco products.
The human brain keeps developing until about the age of 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The San Diego County Office of Education found that more than a quarter of high school juniors in the region had tried vaping. According to County data, there have been 64 “E-Cigarette or Vaping Product Use Associated Lung Injuries” since 2019. A significant portion of these cases is between the ages of 18 and 24.
Recent data released in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows about 2.55 million U.S. middle and high school students reported current use of a tobacco product in 2021. A recent report found 2.06 million middle school and high school students claiming to use e-cigarettes in 2021.
For more information on “San Diegans Vs. Big Tobacco”, visit the campaign’s website at sandiegansvsbigtobacco.org or follow on Twitter at @sdvsbigtobacco.
