San Francisco Vape Flavor Ban Appeal

 

 

In July, San Francisco was the first city in the country to pass a law officially banning the sale of flavored "tobacco" products, including vape flavored e-juice. Barring a successful challenge, the ban will go into effect on April 1, 2018 and would strike a major blow to convenience stores and vape shops, which are standing together in opposition to the ban.

What’s the reason for the ban? The Supervisor of San Francisco’s District 10, Malia Cohen argues that big tobacco companies “maliciously” use flavors and candy names to market to young children and other “vulnerable populations.”

There are a few major issues with this logic that this article will address, one or more could potentially be used to appeal the law before it goes into effect in April.

Vape Industry Is Not Big Tobacco

The vape industry is independent of tobacco companies, and is actually one of the biggest threats to their market. The markets function very differently. The vape industry is dominated by small businesses; whereas the more traditional “Big Tobacco,” are, well, as their name implies, big. If the availability or effectiveness of the alternative offered by vaping is undermined, cigarettes will once again become the only or preferred option for nicotine delivery for countless people.

The vape industry has long disagreed with the allegation that suppliers are targeting children, and most shops and websites (certainly including Breazy) go to great lengths to make sure that someone is of age before they purchase vape products. Most adults prefer flavored vapes, and have come to expect their deliciousness for their nicotine fix.

Money

Flavored tobacco and vape products bring in $50.5 million per year in sales tax revenues, according to the City Economist. That’s $50.5 million going to other jurisdictions. Studies have shown time and again that adults overwhelmingly prefer sweet, flavored e-liquids and this ban would deprive them of access to their favorite flavors. Additionally, the ban will outlaw almost half of local convenience store owners’ merchandise, and even more for small business brick and mortar vape shops.

Vapers Used To Be Smokers

This is not exactly news, especially to people in the vaping community, but vaping has contributed to the cessation of thousands, if not millions, of former smokers. The 2017 Vaper Preference Survey conducted in the USA revealed that 80% of respondents reported switching to vapor products to stop smoking, while 11% did so to reduce cigarette use.

In conclusion, the use of candy-flavored vaping e-juice are not targeted to underage children and would diminish precious funds to the city. This law, instead, would push older vapers back to being smokers after their preferred nicotine flavor were taken off the shelf at local vape shops. A ban like this would, instead, help the big tobacco companies and drive small vaping businesses under.