The voters of San Francisco voted to uphold a ban on flavored tobacco products, which includes vape juice as well as menthol cigarettes, which was earlier passed by the city council.


vape meme - san francisco is ok with shooting heroin but not flavored vape juice

Shooting drugs in public is fine! Flavored e-juice banned!

The voting public of San Francisco voted on June 5, 2018 to uphold a ban passed earlier in 2017 by the city council which places a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products. 

While most voters may have thought they were just banning menthol cigarettes, the ban also prevents the sale of flavored vape juice with in the city limits.

Here is how the San Francisco Chronicle covered Proposition E, the flavored tobacco products ban, to its readers before the vote:

Probably 1 out of every 3 mailers I’ve received has been about Prop. E, which would ban flavored tobacco. After all, both sides have a ton of money and have to spend it on something.

The opposition is funded solely by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which has given more than $10 million to the cause. Their arguments make me wonder whether they’ve been smoking something.

They argue that it’s Prohibition all over again, that Daly City will become the new hotbed for menthol cigarette sales, and that Prop. E bans some tobacco products “but not others.” So they’d support it if it banned all tobacco products? Somehow, I doubt that.

The Yes on E side has $1.8 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Its ads argue that candy-flavored tobacco products look like regular candy, which is dangerous for kids.

I can think of much better ways to spend $13.6 million in San Francisco. And I can think of dozens of issues I care more about. But I’ll vote for Prop. E because there’s something gratifying about R.J. Reynolds Tobacco seeing more than $10 million go up in smoke.

article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Heather Knight

[Highlighting done by the editor of this article to point out the language used in the press coverage.]

This was published in the news section, not the opinion section by the way. 

The article seems to just root for the ban to waste R.J Reynolds ad money leaving out the fact that it would ban flavored e-juice but also gives a positive view on the Yes (ban) side, supported by billionaire former mayor of New York City, Micheal Bloomberg.

And here is the opinion coverage on the flavor ban in the San Francisco Chronicle today, June 6th:

Congratulations, San Francisco, for passing the nation’s first ban on the sale of candy-flavored vaping products. The evidence is clear that such e-cigarettes are an outrageously brazen ploy to snare the next generation into nicotine addiction.

I am appalled that the “No on Proposition E” campaign was almost entirely funded by my family’s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. It outspent the “Yes on Prop. E” campaign many times over. This was a David versus Goliath battle, Big Tobacco against health advocates.

Why is San Francisco’s measure so important? Incredibly, the FDA just gave the e-cigarette makers an additional four years of inaction. This will allow them to go on unimpeded until 2022, and to continue luring kids to try their addictive products with flavors like grape, gummy bear and cotton candy. I struggle to understand why.

Heroin addicts at San Francisco BART terminal

Good Job, Guys! We did it! We saved the children! David slayed Goliath!

David, here is combined force of the national anti-vaping legislative lobby groups supported by a mega-billionaire, the local news media, and the "protect the kids" moral outrage police but hey.

How many vape shop employees are going to be out of work next week? "Who cares! They are worse than drug dealers! Think of the kids!"

I wonder if the voters of San Francisco are going to ban doing heroin in the subway station or defecating on the sidewalk sometime soon. 

Any day now I'm sure, seeing as exposing the general public to an open air bathroom and drug shooting gallery seems more dangerous to the kids of San Francisco than some guy wanting to purchase some watermelon candy e-juice.