Uphold sweeping ban

San Francisco voters uphold sweeping ban on flavored tobacco

By VICTORIA COLLIVER

San Francisco voters on Tuesday night upheld a controversial, toughest-in-the-nation city law banning the sale of flavored vaping products, menthol cigarettes, flavored hookah tobacco and infused cigars.

With all precincts reporting, about 68 percent of the city’s voters backed the ban on flavored nicotine. The ban was passed unanimously by the board of supervisors last June but didn't take effect after the tobacco industry gathered enough signatures to get Proposition E on the ballot.

Tobacco and public health interests spent millions of dollars ahead of the closely watched referendum, which came as the FDA explores new limits on flavored tobacco and grapples with the challenge of regulating products like e-cigarettes that some argue are a safer alternative and can wean smokers off traditional smoking products.

Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds, the maker of Newport menthol cigarettes, plowed nearly $12 million into the No on Prop E campaign, overwhelmingly outspending supporters of the ban. The campaign argued that California already has stringent tobacco regulations, citing the 2016 law that raised the smoking age to 21 and last year’s $2-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes.

The campaign to keep the ban spent about $2.3 million, with the lion’s share coming from former New York City mayor and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg. The effort, backed by health advocates and anti-tobacco groups, argued that the tobacco industry uses enticing fruit and candy flavors to lure a new generation into becoming nicotine addicts.

Other localities have weighed or passed similar, but less restrictive, measures. Cities including New York, Chicago and Oakland have curbs on flavored tobacco.