CORRESPONDENCE -#11 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Middleton, Samuel From:Thomas Lawton <Thomas.L@fumari.com> Sent:Monday, March 14, 2022 9:10 AM To:eComment Subject:Agenda Item 11 Article 3 Chapter 18 Public Comment / Request Good afternoon Honorable Mayor and City Council, thank you for giving me the opportunity to submit a written public statement. My name is Thomas Lawton, I am a member of the National Hookah Community Association as well as the Government Affairs Representative for Fumari and submit this statement to speak on agenda item #11, article III chapter 18 . We actively support the implementation of the Tobacco Retail Licensing program and agree that matters should be taken to ensure that tobacco products stay out of the hands of the youth. I ask that you please honor my request and remove this item from the consent calendar for proper discussion and consideration. Before you inadvertently vote to ban the nearly thousand-year cultural tradition of hookah with the flavor ban being considered on agenda item # 11, I ask the city council to consider adding a hookah exemption to the proposed flavored tobacco ban. The flavor ban is meant to put an end to the youth vaping epidemic, although there is no teen hookah epidemic. The FDA and CDC reports have made it clear that hookah is not the problem with youth and there are no facts that support a ban on hookah. Failing to exempt hookah from the flavor ban will inadvertently affect the livelihood of hookah retailers and lounges. According to the FDA teen hookah use is at 0.8% nationally, the lowest it has ever been. The COVID pandemic coupled with rising costs of inflation has caused financial hardships for retailers who have worked very hard to remain open to serve their customers. If tobacco retailers and hookah lounges are forced to stop selling traditional flavored tobacco products, then customers will simply drive to another store in a neighboring city or purchase their preferred products on- line. Or even worse, Santa Ana will allow an unregulated illicit market the opportunity to flourish with this ban. The additional loss of sales would translate into lost jobs and likely store closures for many minority owned hookah retailers. I ask that city council reconsiders the flavored tobacco ban ordinance until Californians vote in November on whether the California statewide flavored tobacco ban law under Senate Bill 793 is approved or repealed. The voters should be allowed to have their voices heard. Please see the hookah exemption language from SB793 below: (c) Subdivision (b) does not apply to the sale of flavored shisha tobacco products by a hookah tobacco retailer if all of the following conditions are met: 1