San Francisco Votes Against E-Cig Ban Repeal

Source from:  VapingPost 11/18/2019

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80% OF SF’S VOTERS CAST BALLOTS AGAINST PROPOSITION C, A MEASURE WHICH WOULD HAVE REPEALED THE BAN, WITH ONLY JUST OVER 19% OF VOTERS VOTING IN FAVOR OF THE MEASURE.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to have failed, as approximately 80% of SF’s voters cast ballots against Proposition C, a measure which would have repealed the ban, with only just over 19% of voters voting in favor of the measure.  Enditem