AFTER VIEWING RESEARCH on the use of tobacco products among Marin County youth, the county Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to authorize an ordinance that would increase the price of cigarettes and ban the sales of vaping devices.
If given final approval by the board at its meeting Nov. 18, the new law will allow cities and towns within Marin County to pass individual ordinances by July 1, and countywide enforcement will start by Sept. 1 of next year. That would be followed by consistent enforcement through existing agreements with the county Sheriff’s Office to ensure compliance among retailers.
Proposed by the county Department of Health and Human Services, the new law would set a minimum price of $12 for a pack of cigarettes, cigars, little cigars, nicotine pouches and smokeless tobacco. That price would automatically increase another $1 every two years. It would require minimum pack sizes for nicotine products to discourage cheaper, single sales.
The law would also ban the use of tobacco discounts and coupons and prohibit vape and heated tobacco device sales countywide. Electronic cigarettes use a nicotine-containing liquid formulation that is delivered through heated devices that vaporize the liquid into aerosol, also known as vapes.
As part of its continued outreach, the county’s Tobacco Prevention Program, in partnership with the grassroots educational nonprofit Smoke-Free Marin Coalition, will continue to provide education programs to schools, parents and community-based organizations throughout the year.
In a presentation to the board Tuesday, Ann-Marie Yongho, public health division director for Community Health and Prevention in Marin County, said that when the city of Oakland passed a minimum floor price law in 2020, cigarette sales dropped by 15% in just 20 months. Compliance among retailers was about 98%.
“These policies work especially for youth, communities of color and low-income communities that have been targeted through a variety of aggressive marketing and promotional tactics,” Yongho said.
Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Lisa Santora said, “We’re number three in the use of e-cigarettes among our adolescents, which is three times the state average. With marijuana, we’re fourth in the state, with one-quarter of our 11th graders using marijuana.”
According to a report from Marin HHS, there are 40,000 annual smoking-related deaths in California, with an estimated 230 deaths in Marin County. Health care expenditures due to tobacco-associated diseases exceed $15 billion in the state.
Smoking continues to be higher in vulnerable populations, disproportionately affecting the health of youth and communities with systemic, racial, and economic inequalities. The presentation by Santora indicated that 55 California jurisdictions have passed similar minimum price ordinances, and 24 jurisdictions ended vaping sales.
“We don’t want to have the reputation as being the community where people drive to get their vapes,” Santora said. “We don’t want people coming from Sonoma, Napa, Solano, San Francisco knowing that in Marin County they still carry those products.”
Raven Twilling, a coordinator with the nonprofit health advocacy group Bay Area Community Resources, presented more statistics. Twilling said that nicotine is a neurotoxin that is highly addictive and causes changes in brain chemistry.
“It impacts brain development, attention span, learning, mood and impulse control, particularly in developing brains,” she said. “Here in Marin County, we know that about half of 11th graders currently admit to vaping, and 70% of 11th graders self-report that it’s easy to access vapes.”
Twilling presented research data that compares of the amount of nicotine in various tobacco products. A single pack of cigarettes contains about 22 milligrams of nicotine; one JUUL vape pod contains 41.3 mg; a Vuse vape pod contains 90 mg and an Elf Bar disposable vape contains 650 mg of nicotine.
“This means that young people are going to become addicted to nicotine more quickly because their initial intake is going to be higher than it would be otherwise,” said Twilling. “It also means that the effects of nicotine on the developing brain are going to be more pronounced because young people are consuming more nicotine.”