SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - With a strong vote of 3 to 1, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors passed the biggest hurdle in advancing an ordinance, authored by Supervisor Patrick Kennedy (District 2), that squarely rejects Big Tobacco’s deeply deceptive sales practice of hiding highly addictive nicotine behind candy flavors that appeal to kids. After returning for a final vote in 2 weeks the policy will take effect in 6 months. Beginning July 2022, the new law requires stores across Sacramento County to end the sale of candy-flavored e-cigarettes and hookah tobacco, menthol cigarettes, and cheap sweet cigars.

With this vote, Sacramento County becomes the latest jurisdiction to join more than 100+ municipalities across California that have already acted to take candy-flavored tobacco off store shelves. It marks a significant loss for Big Tobacco companies currently gearing up to spend millions of dollars in a bid to overturn California’s bipartisan and overwhelmingly popular statewide law that ended the sale of most candy-flavored tobacco products. Voters won’t have a chance to weigh in until late 2022, making this ordinance an important step towards protecting kids from getting hooked on nicotine in the interim. 

“In this battle between California and Big Tobacco over the health of our children, Sacramento County is proudly on the frontlines taking action right now to get candy flavored nicotine off store shelves for good,” said Supervisor Patrick Kennedy. “We are listening to the scientists who say that nicotine is a substance that harms brain development. We trust data that says 90% of Sacramento County kids who use tobacco, use a flavored product. We see the addiction, disease, and death Big Tobacco has brought to our neighborhoods; and we are saying enough is enough. I am grateful to my colleagues for standing on the right side of history by taking action to protect the next generation from Big Tobacco.”

“Today we sent a clear message to tobacco companies: Sacramento County puts the health and wellbeing of our children and our communities first,” said First District Supervisor Phil Serna. “More specifically, with the adoption of this ordinance we finally end Big Tobacco’s practice of targeting African American neighborhoods, deliberately hooking generations of Black youth on minty-menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. I was proud to vote YES today.”

“When 80% of kids who have used tobacco say they started with a flavored product, that’s a huge red flag that it’s time to make sure these products aren’t sold in our neighborhoods,” said Kimberly Bankston-Lee, Senior Program Director, The SOL Project. “Tobacco companies have long manipulated flavors to get smokers hooked; masking the harsh taste of tobacco behind minty menthols is the reason 85% of black smokers use menthols. Candy-coated flavors are the tobacco companies’ latest page from this same playbook, putting youth users at even greater risk of addiction. That’s why the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors passed this historic ordinance to take the candy-flavored nicotine Big Tobacco uses to hook kids off store shelves and out of our communities.”

“As the global pandemic rages on, the very last thing we need in our schools and neighborhoods is Big Tobacco using candy flavors to lure kids like me into getting hooked on nicotine,” said Milton Nguyen, Youth Advocate, 2021 Tobacco-Free Kids’ National Advocate of the Year. “Nicotine is especially harmful to young people, capable of harming adolescent brain development and impacting their attention, mood, and impulse control. We need to be doing everything within our power to keep nicotine products out of the hands of kids and this ordinance is a strong step forward.”