Proposition 31: Flavored Tobacco Ban: Yes

I feel dirty. I have spent hours and pages telling you to not let people and corporations buy our laws. Yet that’s exactly what is going on here. Am I a hypocrite?

Honestly, it feels like it. This should be settled. Back in 2020, the California legislature passed SB 793, which banned the sale of flavored tobacco products and tobacco product flavor enhancers, with exceptions for hookah tobacco, loose leaf tobacco, and premium cigars. That should have been the end of it.

But the tobacco industry will not go down easily, and they mounted a campaign to reverse the law. As a result, we get a statewide initiative to decide whether to codify or repeal it. Well, that should be OK, right?

Well, almost all of the money supporting the law, some $30 million, comes from one source: Michael Bloomberg. Yes, that Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and failed Presidential candidate.

Most of the opposition? R. J Reynolds and Philip Morris.

And let’s be crystal clear here: Flavored tobacco products aren’t aimed at adult smokers. They are aimed directly at our kids in attempt to get them addicted to this deadly drug. It is without question a societal good to ban these product from the face of the earth.

When it comes to a distasteful rock and a reprehensible hard place, the rock wins. Vote Yes on Prop. 31.