Tag: Electronic cigarette

SAN FRANCISCO — A major tobacco company is pouring millions of dollars into a ballot initiative that would repeal the country’s strongest effort yet to ban the sale of flavored tobaccos, which are attracting a whole new generation of users including children and teens. A $12 million campaign primarily funded by R.J. Reynolds is urging San Francisco voters next Tuesday to reject the city’s ban on selling flavored vaping products, hookah tobacco and menthol cigarettes. The flavored tobacco comes in brightly colored packages and tastes like bubblegum, mango or chicken-and-waffles, which public health advocates say are designed to entice young people. While the industry argues the devices help adult smokers kick the habit, public health advocates contend the flavored products are also getting young people to try nicotine products. Studies also show that young people who vape — inhaling a heated vapor instead of smoking cigarettes — are more likely to go on to become smokers. The campaign argues that the ban is a government overreach in a state that already raised the smoking age to 21 and banned the sale of these flavored tobacco products to kids. Repeal backers also argue it will hurt small businesses and create a black market for these products. “San Francisco voters should say enough is enough and adults should be free to make their own consumer choices,” a longtime San Francisco libertarian activist known as Starchild told those gathered at a “No on Prop. About $1.8 million of the $2.3 million raised by supporters of the flavor ban has come from Bloomberg, who has bankrolled other public health campaigns to support soda taxes and smoking bans, among other issues. They also argue that young people are more likely to buy these products online than in stores.