Smoked out?
Lodi to consider vaping, flavored tobacco ban
On Tuesday morning, the Lodi City Council was asked by San Joaquin County health officials to support an ordinance banning vaping products and flavored tobacco in unincorporated areas of the county.
Not only did the council support the idea, but it went a step further by directing Lodi city staff to draft its own ordinance that would ban the products within city limits during the Tuesday shirtsleeve meeting.
“I’m going to support (the county’s ordinance) fully because of public health reasons,” Mayor Alan Nakanishi said. “I also believe this will probably apply to adults. (Vaping) increases vulnerability for contact of COVID-19. It increases risks of severe symptoms of respiratory problems. I don’t mind having this ordinance in Lodi. I don’t think it’s going to take a lot of money or finances.”
San Joaquin County Public Health Services presented vaping policy options to the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors in February of 2020.
The presentation focused on the recommendation to restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products in an effort to keep the county’s youth from smoking.
Last year, Senate Bill 793 was introduced to the state legislature, which not only prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products, but holds the tobacco industry accountable for health complications suffered by youth from using the products.
The bill does not criminalize an individual for purchasing, using or possessing flavored tobacco products.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill last August and it would have taken effect on Jan. 1, but county public health said the tobacco industry filed a referendum that placed the bill on the 2022 general election ballot for California voters to decide.
The bill would have prevented stores from selling flavors, e-vapes, e-juice, pods and cartridges, menthol cigarettes, flavored little cigars and cigarellos, loose-leaf/roll your own, and smokeless tobacco, as well as flavored tobacco enhancers.
It would not have applied to flavored hooka, premium cigars more than $12 and loose leaf pipe tobacco, public health staff said.
Daniel Kim, a San Joaquin County Public Health spokesman, said that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the agency was seeing that vapers were developing lung injuries from vaping.
The habit also doubles the risk of respiratory infections, as well as the risk for severe COVID-19 symptoms.
“(The bill) is something that California is looking for and would have applied to all localities,” Kim said. “However, because of the need to address the issue of flavored tobacco products in our county, this is why we are looking for this ordinance to be put forward.”
In an email to the council read by City Clerk Jennifer Cusmir, Lodi resident Kenneth Huntley said drafting an ordinance, either at the county or city level, was a waste of spending as adults affected by a ban would still continue to smoke.
He said the Surgeon General has already placed health warnings on tobacco products, and that physicians and health instructors at schools should educate youth about the dangers of smoking.
“The fact that is, we can have many bills signed and many polices created,” he said. “Yet many people are still going to choose to smoke and people are going to choose to vape. I’m a nonsmoker and non-vaper, but we are continuing to waste time on no-smoking campaigns. Let’s stop spending on unnecessary bills and stop creating feel good policies that have no teeth. Adults know the dangers and they are going to make the decision to smoke or vape.”
Councilman Doug Kuehne agreed, stating that while the ordinance’s focus is to reduce smoking and vaping among the youth, proposed restrictions would impact adults.
He said he would not support the ordinance.
Councilman Shak Khan said he owned a smoke shop and closed the business two years ago because he knew the younger generation was being negatively affected by the products he sold.
“Vaping is also being used nowadays for meth,” he said. “People are addicted to drugs and do meth, and now they use vapes and mix meths into the juice. It’s hard for law enforcement to stop this because they don’t know what’s going on. I 100% support this. We have more and more youth coming into this. If we don’t take any action on this soon, we’re going to have more problems and have more people turn to drugs and vaping.”
The council did not vote in favor of an ordinance because there is no text yet. City Manager Steve Schwabauer asked county public health staff to send his office the text from its proposed ordinance as a basis for Lodi’s document.
“We’d need direction from a majority one way or another whether or not to bring an ordnance forward,” he said. “There will be staff work associated with getting this done. It will need review work by the city attorney’s office. We just don’t take the DA’s word for it. The city attorney will have to do some research to make sure they’re convinced the ordinance is lawful.”