By Tony Hicks – The Walnut Creek City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to ban the sale of favored tobacco and electronic smoking devices within city limits.
The idea is to discourage young smokers, who frequently start using flavored products for electronic vaping.
“I’m proud that Walnut Creek continues to lead by example in areas of safety for our community, in this case banning sales of flavored vape products and e-cigarette devices,” Mayor Kevin Wilk said, after the meeting.
Wilk said a 2019-20 California tobacco survey found 92 percent of students using tobacco reported using a flavored product.
“Vaping is the number one problem in middle and high school, and we need to protect our youths,” Wilk said.
A staff report for Tuesday’s meeting quoted United States Centers for Disease Control statistics saying smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. (more than 480,000 annually). Nearly nine out of every 10 adult smokers try smoking by the age of 18.
The city’s ban is more restrictive than federal and state laws, though it provides exemptions for adult-only hookah tobacco businesses.
The ordinance includes a five-month enforcement delay to allow retailers to comply with the new restrictions.
The city follows Contra Costa County, who reaffirmed its 2019 ban restricting the sale of flavored vaping products and electronic devices in July. That ordinance only covers the county’s unincorporated areas.
24 comments
They should also ban LOOTING and DOMESTIC TERRORISM, what the liberals call peaceful protesting. Harassing patrons of businesses over manufactured oppression, racism and victim hood. No one is oppressed, no one.
Good job Virginia!! They are waking up 👍🏼
@Darwin looting and terrorism are already crimes. And are you sure you want people “harassing” businesses arrested? Including the anti vaxxer anti mask folks then, right? Just cuff ’em and put ’em in jail.
Law and order!
@greg
Looting is practically legal. The CCC DA Becton thinks the looters needs should be considered before charges, Crazy! Wake up Greg
BLM is terrorism and part of the Democratic Party! They got away with Burning Looting and Murder for over 9 months. You think they vote republican?
For the record, I’m not a vaxer or anti-vaxer. I’m about choice. I don’t want the government taking away my rights. Food for thought
Greg = Democratic 🐑. No common sense.
LOL
As I said, it was a done deal before the meeting.
You are right.
Plus they won’t enforce it anyway like the cigarette ban downtown/.
Driving by Bourbon Highway we counted 10 cigarette smokers.and some around the corner filling the air with skunk, but no tree with a knitted sweater on. 🙂
If those (…) in government wanted to do something worthwhile they focus more on character values in schools.
Teaching about responsibility and accountability.
But no one will pay them to do something that might make a little sense.
Yep, Cellophane…..you called it early yesterday and Randy was right there with you. 🙂
Cellophane—
You never did give an example of the group
or groups that had bribed the city council
and bought their vote. I can’t think of any
companies that could provide more influence
than big tobacco. You can say anything you
desire. Without examples or proof it means
nothing. Don’t forget these products the council
are banning once included Cotton Candy flavored
vaping. I wonder what age group that was aimed
at.
“Vaping is the number one problem in middle and high school”. That statement is hard to believe and seems disingenuous at best.
When will the cities, county’s, and state start worrying about more important issues? I’m not saying that stoping our youth from using vapes and tobacco is a bad idea. I just think there are more important things we should be focusing on. How about the homeless everywhere, building more dams for water, the crime in our area, etc. I feel like it’s more and more “look at me” from our politicians (both parties). When will our governments step up and start focusing on real problems and do something about them?
Makes no sense at all.Just drive two miles and buy it in another city.What a bunch of morons.
Removing world threats one threat at a time. Bet they went home feeling good about themselves. Next meeting they promise to do something meaningful.
Good news
They need to crack down on stores that are selling to minors and people who buy for minors instead of taking it off the shelf cause that doesn’t do anything they can literally order it online with a credit card, or have an adult buy it for them from another city. This really won’t help anything. Good try I guess?
But why is flavored alcohol okay?
Boom, funny how that works for sure!
Government over reach.. politicians powerless to actually make a difference in the real problems that need addressing so they focus on the bs low priority issues to make themselves feel useful.
Its like a cop writing writing a J-walking ticket while a shooting is happening a block over. Way to earn your paychecks! Good job Wilk!
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Government workers making themselves appear productive by prepping an ordinance that probably affects less than one percent of the population of WC.
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It’s a non-issue in WC.
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Who directed prepping this waste of time? Buckshi or that waste of human issue Kilgore?
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Aunt Barb what are the knitted tree sweaters about?
Re vape: Is it really the worst problem in schools?
The 60’s. I turned 5 in 1960 and 14 in 1969. Grew up with Walt Disney and the summer of love, about far apart as one can get. To young to be concerned with the Cuban Missile Crisis and old enough to enjoy the Beatles. Milk still deliverd to your doorstep and a penny bough a few pieces of candy. No cell phones, no computers or play stations. Our time was spent interacting with others face to face, not screen to screen. Todays youth have no idea what they missed out on.
Wish these nanny-state communists could be consistent. Smoking tobacco is so much more dangerous than vaporizing nicotine, and my experience with every friend who has switched from cigarette smoking to vaping is that they ultimately tapered off their vaping and just quit altogether.
It’s was already illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase these flavored vapes. Yet we MUST ban them because younger people will still get them and abuse them, and get horribly addicted! Why then are fruity liquors (99 bananas, midori, etc) with extremely high sugar contents allowed? They taste just like candy, I tell you! A kid vaping some melon-flavored vape isn’t going to crash his car at 90mph in a 30mph killing an innocent family, while a kid drinking a melon-flavored midori in excess has a real chance of it.
Inconsistent moronic scumbags rule this entire region.
My handle says it all. So, the only way to preserve freedom is to create TERM LIMITS for ALL politicians.
Never understood this one. The goal is to stop the sale of flavored tobacco products to kids. It’s already illegal to sell tobacco to anyone under 18 years old. Do we outlaw alcohol to make sure kids don’t get it? No. By doing this, you are also outlawing the use by adults, as they can’t get it either. Half of the people (adults) I work with use flavored chewing tobacco.
Here’s an idea; why don’t we just enforce the laws we already have and stop making more unnecessary ones? Oh wait…….that’s right. Stupid question. We live in California where majority rules, and if you don’t fit into that majority you’re wrong. The majority do not chew tobacco, so those that do are inconsequential.
More ridiculous from the woke Walnut Creek city council. Don’t worry about the fact that your actions opened the city to an influx of undesirables, and therefore a crime rate the city has never known before. Sorry all of you Walnut Creeker’s in your multi-million dollar homes. You, by voting for soft on crime liberalism, have opened that dam, Get used to it, as you won’t be able to close it now. They’ve found you! No more utopia. There go your property values! Wake up WC. Your city council is not working to better your city. They are ruining it!
Deny the liberty to choose to use vape products, or electronic mechanisms to do so, to all the adults in your city because young kids illegally acquire said products. I fear they will make beer illegal because kids will drink, or make the numbers rackets (lottery) in Walnut Creek illegal because youngsters might spend more money than they should to play. I guess it is a good think Walnut Creek is so isolated to prevent its (once free) residents from going to another city to purchase these said products.
Lotta deep, sophisticated thinking going on in that City Council /sarc off.
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