More than a million people signed a petition to overturn California governor Gavin Newsom’s ban on flavored tobacco sales, otherwise known as SB 793.
The signatures were submitted by the California Coalition for Fairness, seeking to qualify a referendum for the November 2022 ballot aimed at overturning SB 793. If the California Secretary of State’s office determines there is a sufficient number of signatures to qualify the referendum, the new law, which was scheduled to take effect January 1 next year, would be suspended until the voters act on the ballot measure in November 2022. At least 623,312 registered voters are needed to quality the referendum.
SB 793 would ban the retail sale of flavored tobacco products including menthol and fruit flavors, as well as those used in e-cigarettes. However, hookah, expensive cigars, and flavored pipe tobacco will be exempt, as well as Internet sales of flavored products.
The Coalition said that its signature drive showed that voters are put off by the new law. In a released statement, it said, “In the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, raging wildfires, heatwaves, and power outages across the state, more than one million Californians signed petitions for the right to have their voice heard on an unfair law that benefits the wealthy and special interests while costing jobs and cutting funding for education and healthcare.”
“SB 793 criminalizes the sale of menthol cigarettes preferred by people of color and creates special exemptions for products preferred by the wealthy — allowing the sale of expensive flavored cigars and pipe tobacco, in addition to hookah, to remain legal.”
The Coalition agrees “that youth should never have access to any tobacco products, but this can be achieved without imposing a total prohibition on products that millions of adults choose to use.”