City Government

San Francisco City Ordinance Targets Flavored Tobacco Products

Published

8 years ago

May 5, 2017

By Manny Otiko | California Black Media

The city of San Francisco has announced a new ordinance last week that cracks down on tobacco sales. The tobacco control ordinance, which was authored by Supervisor Malia Cohen and Supervisor Ahsha Safai, targets flavored tobacco products.

“This is the most comprehensive municipal restriction on flavored tobacco in the country,” said Cohen.

According to Cohen, flavored tobacco is targeted towards young Black consumers and is designed to make them long-time customers.

“Flavored tobacco hooks new smokers and makes them lifelong users. It can be more harmful and harder to quit than unflavored tobacco,” said Cohen. “Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, specifically cancers. This legislation will have a tremendous impact on the disturbing disparities for tobacco-related illnesses, and will reduce the number of new tobacco users that pick up the habit annually.”

She added San Francisco is facing the cost of paying for tobacco-related illnesses. Cohen said smoking-related illnesses cost the city more than $380 million per year in direct expenses.

Menthol cigarettes are popular with Black smokers, and there is a reason behind this. According to Cohen, menthol flavoring adds taste, and this makes it easier to consume the product. The industry also backs this up with heavy marketing.

“Since the Civil Rights Era, Big Tobacco companies have perniciously targeted the African American community with mentholated tobacco products,” said Dr. Valerie Yerger of the University of California San Francisco. Yerger also said tobacco kills more African Americans yearly than AIDs, homicides, police-related shootings and diabetes.

“Young people are susceptible to marketing,” added Cohen. “They are bombarded with advertising.”

The ordinance targets tobacco, but avoids addressing concerns around marijuana which anti-marijuana advocates in the past have had concerns with the names of flavors they believe also target kids. Cohen said she is less concerned about marijuana because restrictions are preventing that industry from marketing its products to people under 21.

However, Cohen is not the only California lawmaker who launched an anti-smoking bill. Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) recently announced a proposed bill that prohibits retailers from accepting coupons, promotions or discounts on tobaccos sales. Last November, California voters approved Proposition 56, which added a $2 per pack tax on cigarettes and other smoking products. Tobacco retailers countered by offering discounts and promotions to lower the prices of their products.

“Sadly, the tobacco industry continues to trick consumers into becoming long-term addicts by artificially lowering the price of tobacco products,” said McCarty in a press release. “This legislation will put a stop to this deadly promotional tactic and continue California’s progressive efforts to reduce tobacco consumption in the state.”

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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3 days ago

June 7, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.