San Francisco to Become the First City to Ban Vape Sales
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to ban the sale of vaping products until the FDA approves them. Though it requires one more vote, results will remain unchanged. The prohibition of CBD Vape sales has been unanimously approved. This law bans the sale in city stores as well as online sale into the city. However, combustible cigarettes will not be banned.
As written by a famous tobacco control expert, Michael Siegal, any leader who is serious about preventing the youth from smoking would not declare a ban allowing cigars on the shelves without any further restrictions.
According to the City Attorney, the legislation has taken a reasoned approach. It does not ban the e-cigs right away. It simply means that if a tobacco product requires FDA approval to be available in the market, it cannot be sold in San Francisco until it gets that approval.
As there is so much doubt if the FDA will approve it, no CBD vape manufacturer would submit the product to the agency. It could cost millions to comply with the requirements through analysis and research as demanded by the agency for premarket tobacco application. The agency has not even issued the final guidance for PMTA after three years of announcing the rule.
The ban in San Francisco is an answer to the popularity of JUUL and the associated teen vaping fad. However, losing sales in the city would hardly affect the company’s bottom line. It hasn’t even made any plans to move out; JUUL has recently purchased a 28-story building for office costing about $400 million in the city. It stated that it would eventually acquire the whole building while maintaining the headquarters in San Francisco.
As a way to overturn the ban, the controversial vape manufacturer has led a ballot initiative. Question is put to voters after acquiring the essential resident permissions. If it passes, the vape sales in the city would start again. Anti e-cig activists will get validated in the belief that as long as the concern is for kids, you can distort the facts as you see right. In fact, as the ban takes seven months to come into practice after the mayor signs it into law, it is possible that it gets voided before it even starts. The ballot measure is presented as a Big Tobacco trick by opponents. Anti-vaping organizations will also do the same thing. The co-sponsor of the ban, Shamann Walton said that we have spent the entire 90s fighting big tobacco and now it has come in a new form of e-cigarettes.
This is what exactly took place in California. Numerous cities across the state have banned flavored CBD vape in the name of protecting kids. Beverly Hills is one of those cities which has banned all the tobacco products though exempted cigars being used in private clubs and luxurious hotels. The city of San Francisco has now brought up the familiar concern ‘What about the children?’ to become the first city in the nation to pass legislation which effectively encourages people to keep smoking.