Mill Valley bans sale of flavored tobacco

City joins rest of Marin; mayor is dissenting vote

“I’m not suggestingwe arrest themand throwthemin jail.” — Mayor Sashi McEntee

Mill Valley is the latest city to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products.

The City Council voted 4-1 to enact the ban at its meeting Monday. It is the last city or towninMarin to implement the prohibition.

Mayor Sashi McEntee was the sole dissenting vote. While supportive of the ban, she said the ordinance does not prevent youth frombecoming addicted to nicotine because it limits police from enforcing illegal use of tobacco products.

“I’mnot suggestingwe arrest them and throw them in jail,” McEntee said. “There are nuances beyond that, butwe need to give ourselves some additional tools to actually prevent the activity. I’m not convinced this ordinancewill do anything to prevent the activity we are trying to prevent.”

City Manager Alan Piombo said the idea of enforcement was also brought up in a presentation by the Youth Advisory Committee, a sixth-12thgrade group that advises the council.

“One of their recommendations was that council entertain the idea of a municipal ordinance that would allow local enforcement of minors in possession of tobacco as the state has removed that from the penal code,” Piombo said. “If the council passes this and has a subsequent appetite for having our police officer enforce minors in possession of tobacco we can certainly ask for that to come back.”

Councilman Jim Wickham said he is not in favor of issuing citations but does think additional enforcement should be discussed.

The council also included bans on hookah tobacco, which they agreed did not have a local cultural bearing.

The ban, which also prohibits the sale of tobacco products at pharmacies, is part of a countywide effort to curb nicotine addiction among youth, said Mill Valley police Lt. Jacqueline Graf-Reis.

She said Mill Valley is the only municipality in the county that did not prohibit the sale of tobacco in pharmacies. However, three of the four pharmacies in the city have corporate policies banning tobacco products. Pharmacies would still be permitted to sell smoking cessation products, she said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 793, banning the sale of flavored tobacco products statewide effective Jan. 1, 2021. It does not preempt the adoption of local standards that impose greater restrictions, Graf-Reis said.

Councilman Urban Carmel said because cigarettes are the leading cause of preventable death, about 480,000 nationwide, he said he is supportive of the ban.

“Nothing is even close to that,” he said. “Opioids, just for comparison, is one tenth of that level.”