Last June, San Francisco’s supervisors approved a total e-cig ban in a unanimous preliminary vote. “We spent the 90s battling big tobacco, and now we see its new form in e-cigarettes,” said supervisor Shamann Walton at the time. “This is about thinking about the next generation of users and thinking about protecting the overall health and sending a message to the rest of the state and the country: follow our lead,” added supervisor Ahsha Safaí.
80% of SF’s voters cast ballots against Proposition C, a measure which would have repealed the ban, with only just over 19% of voters voting in favor of the measure.
The ban is expected to go into full effect in January 2020, meanwhile there have been a number of attempts to overturn it. In July Juul Labs donated $3 million to the Coalition for Reasonable Vaping Regulation. The organization was established in May to combat the ban.
In August, the coalition reported the latest infusion in a filing to the San Francisco Ethics Commission, bringing Juul’s total contributions for the year up to $4.5 million. The coalition’s communications director, Nate Allbee, had told Forbes that the money would be funding a traditional campaign including advertisements and canvassing.
Amongst other things, the campaign emphasized that halting the e-cig ban would not reverse the flavour ban. “Cigarettes kill 8 million people a year,” read a campaign ad. “They shouldn’t stay on the shelf while e-cigarettes are banned. It’s just a gift to cigarette makers. Instead, let’s further restrict e-cigarette sales and marketing to youth, and keep the City’s existing flavored e-cigarette ban.”
However, the campaign seems to have failed, as approximately 80% of SF’s voters cast ballots against Proposition C, a measure which would have repealed the ban, with only just over 19% of voters voting in favor of the measure.
Juul criticized for attempting to overturn the ban
Meanwhile, City Atty. Dennis Herrera, who co-authored the ban, criticized Juul Labs for trying to overturn the measure. “By law, e-cigarettes must undergo FDA review to ensure they are safe for public health. Complete FDA review and you can sell your product here. If you don’t, you can’t. It’s that simple,” he said in a statement. “If the FDA can’t verify that these products are safe, then they don’t belong on store shelves.”
Read Further: Los Angeles Times
