YES on Prop 31: Banning Flavored Tobacco Products.

In 2020, California passed a law banning the in-person sale of flavored tobacco products, like candy-flavored e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes, at stores and vending machines. Sellers violating the law would be subject to criminal misdemeanor prosecution. A YES vote on Prop 31 is a vote to keep the ban in place. More than two million middle and high school students in the U.S. use e-cigarettes which deliver large doses of addictive nicotine. In California, 96 percent of high school e-cigarette users choose flavored products. Nationally, 80 percent of kids who use tobacco started out with a flavored product. In addition to the well-known dangers of tobacco-related disease and death, epidemic usage among youth poses risks to brain development, attention, mood, and impulse control.  Furthermore, for many decades tobacco companies have targeted Black communities with well-funded campaigns to promote menthol-flavored tobacco.  Now 85 percent of Black smokers using menthol cigarettes and deaths caused by tobacco-related diseases (including heart disease, lung cancer and stroke) among Black people exceeds deaths caused by AIDS, homicide and accidents combined. Prop 31 is an important step to protect the health and safety of Californians.