Blog note: this article references a grand jury report.
Tobacco retailers in San Rafael have 18 months to comply with a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco approved this week by a divided City Council.
The 3-2 decision came on the fourth motion proposed Monday after council members heard more than three hours of public comment and debate and then voted down three variations of the ban. It came down to balancing the rights of adults with the public health crisis of youth tobacco use.
Councilman John Gamblin said a decision on a prohibition is better left in the hands of state and federal legislators and voted no on the first three motions Monday. In the spirit of compromise, Gamblin proposed an option that allowed an 18-month grace period for retailers to comply, assuming that Senate Bill 38, a proposed state ban on certain flavored products, would take effect before then.
Council members Andrew McCullough and Kate Colin were in favor of an exemption for adult-only stores and cast dissenting votes.
“I would support a ban, but only if an exemption came with it,” said McCullough, explaining that he thinks it’s “important to protect the retailers who are playing by the rules” by not selling to minors.
Mayor Gary Phillips and Councilwoman Maribeth Bushey were unwavering and passionately in favor of a ban.
“The experts … are here telling us this one thing: this particular type of product is so dangerous that we need to completely outlaw it,” Bushey said.
Ted Turina, who owns VIP Vape in downtown San Rafael, was stunned with the decision and said he’s going to need to take time to figure out how to adjust.
“That was a twist I don’t think anybody thought was going to happen,” he said.
The debate comes as the state is pushing for flavored tobacco bans. Additionally, the Marin County Civil Grand Jury recently released a report calling on Marin educators and health officials to crack down on what they call an epidemic. Rising incidence of teen vaping is fueling the call to action.
So far, the county of Marin, Larkspur, Sausalito, San Anselmo and Corte Madera have approved similar bans of flavored tobacco. The ban applies to tobacco products and vaporizer pods or cartridges that have added flavors, including menthol. Fairfax and Novato have a ban, but exempt menthol products.
During the deliberation, protesters held signs that read “Prohibition has never worked” and “Help us legally quit smoking.”
The council chambers were divided with anti-tobacco group members and health officials on one side and ban opponents on the other. Vape retailers and users said flavored vaping products help adults quit smoking. Opponents of the ban said since switching to vape they have improved blood circulation and lung health. They provided research from the Royal College of Physicians that recommends vape products as an effective tobacco cessation tool.
Before the vote, Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County public health officer, laid out the rationale for the ban, including statistics from the California Healthy Kids Survey that show youth vaping has increased from one in 10 to one in three students.
Willis said that in order to keep the products from getting to kids a comprehensive ban is needed and any exemption would undermine the work of the county. He also noted e-cigarettes are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a means of quitting smoking, even though they are often touted as a safe smoking substitute.
“The fact is, is that flavoring is a contributor to new people choosing to use tobacco and becoming addicted and we can address that through policy,” Willis said.
As of December, there were 54 tobacco retail licenses issued in San Rafael, said Ethan Guy, principal analyst for the city’s community development department. These including liquor stores, pharmacies, grocery stores and smoke shops.
Hoping for an exemption, Turina said his shop is 18 and older to enter. Customers have to be 21 or older to purchase vape products. They have an ID reader and employees are trained to spot fakes. Additionally, the store doesn’t carry brands that appear to market to youth, he said.
In his presentation, Guy said if a ban was adopted it’s estimated that the city would lose about $25,000 in sales tax revenue with an exemption, and up to $100,000 with a full ban.
A statewide ban would result in a $237 million loss in excise taxes and $54.5 million in sales taxes, according to an analysis by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
Dr. Jason Nau, a physician at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael and chairman of the San Francisco Marin Medical Society’s Marin Committee, said an exemption is not acceptable.
‘We’re in the middle of a vaping epidemic,” he said. “We need to consider the loss of tax revenue on the sale of tobacco products as a public health victory. The long term societal costs are much greater to our children.”
The ordinance will be on the consent calendar at the next meeting for a second reading. Under the ordinance, pharmacies would be prohibited from selling all tobacco products. The ban takes effect Jan. 1, 2021.
May 21, 2019
Marin Independent Journal
By Adrian Rodriguez
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