Deliverable device that was not a cigarette must be safer than a cigarette. But theres not been any study to prove that presumption, and what weve seen are studies showing that people are higher risk for Heart Disease, lung disease. Now were finding flavors that are carcinogenic in the product. We have products to help people quit smoking, and california has been more successful than just about anyplace in the United States in helping people quit smoking over time, and thats borne out by 30 years of helping people quit smoking rates. I live in marin county, and we have some of the lowest smoking rates among teens in the country. We have seen a rise in recent years of ecigarette devices. Selfreporting ranges are in the range of 28 to 30 for 8th graders. Thats 0 to 30 in three years. So whatever cost it is that makes people move from regular cigarettes, theres a enormous Public Health cost. For every adult who quits smoking cigarettes, there are 80 youth that go on to smoke ecigarettes, so the cost dramatically outweighs whatever benefits there might be. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is patty, and i work for the american heart association. Im here to support restricting the sale of vaping devices . We have a report like what the doctor just shared . I know firsthand the impact nicotine has on San Franciscos youth through our use with San FranciscoUnified School District . I hear every day the pressures that students face for vaping, and teachers have no idea that students are vaping in their classrooms. Teenage is the perfect age for nicotine addiction, and jool and the industry know this. Please protect the Public Health with this policy and San Francisco kids. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. My name is nick, and i work on the Community Impact team for the american heart association. Simply put, my mission is to help youth live longer, healthier lives, make better decisions. The time i spend with youth in this city, really, anywhere, it shows me how impressionable they are. I know how impressionable i was. Im sure you can remember how impressionable you were in Elementary School and high school. In relation to this, i find it interesting how there is never really a push in the marketing of currently f. D. A. Approved Smoking Cessation devices toward youth. We dont see those widely used in schools. Kids arent hitting up a patch in the bathroom, theyre hitting up a jool and their favorite vaping devices. Its well known that the drug nicotine combined with a whole host of other chemicals in this case does not help anyone lead a longer, healthier life. While San Francisco cant fix all of the issues at any given moment that it sees, the city can keep being a leader in progressive policy that benefits the public and works to improve the health of its citizens, specifically its youth. Please continue admonition tmo forward. [names read] good morning, supervisors. My name is ronald shea, and i was t was and i am the manager of happy vape in supervisor yees district. I represent a group of more than 500 patrons, community members, and relatives. We are against the ban as we originally came to the Supervisors Office with a land use issue. Getting our vape shop to open up was originally getting a license. So turning to health issue, we which we had to revisit as a land use issue, and finally turned to getting our tobacco and paraphernalia shop marketing license. And we have been regulated in this industry from that point onwards. You guys initially approved us, and now all of a sudden theres this ban that its going to proposed thats basically going to remove us from business. If this does pass, is there any compensation to the businesses themselves, especially shops like us who are dedicated vape shops who only sell Vape Products . The most is that most of my customers are not being educated before they enter a vape shop. Smoking is legal, smoking marijuana is legal, but vaping is demonized and now facing a ban. Were allowed flafrd alcohol which most children would start drinking is and is sold within stores and reached within grocery stores, however, vaping is used as marketing to children. Should we also be banning bars and mixed drinks [inaudible] my name is christine chessen, and im a San Francisco mom of three in supervisor stefanis district. Im part of a Grassroots Movement of parents across the country working to halt the explosion of nonf. D. A. Approved ecigarettes such as jool that are creating a brandnew generation of nicotine and tobacco users. My own son is now being treated for nicotine thanks to jools and aggressive predatory campaign to grow a new clientele for its business. Big tobacco has snuck back in to the addiction business through the tech side door by luring teens and young people down this path. Jool has refused to submit their ingredient lists with the f. D. A. How many young people are they addicting . A recent study just cited by ucsf found for every one adult that makes the switch from spoking to ecigarettes, 80 young people a day will start start using ecigarettes. This isnt just bad for any son, this is bad for an entire generation, and we should not be willing to pay this price. Thank you. Clerk next speaker, please. Hello. My name is vanessa, and im a Current College student at mills college. Ive never smoked a cigarette in my life but known people that have. When ecigarettes were first announced, the whole idea of e. Cigarettes became a trend. Curious as to what it would be like, i took my first puff in high school. I had no idea how a little puff, followed by a little dose of nicotine. As weeks and months went by, i noticed how addictive they had become. If someone warned me how addictive ecigarettes would be, i never would have taken my first puff. Many College Students think of vaping as something fun to do with friends, not as a product with health risks . The prevalence of vaping has grown with peers and people would go out of their way to sell them . This has to do with how Big Tobacco Companies market the product which has created new addicts for their customer base. Nicotine harms the brains of youth . Nicotine unlocked special reseptors, molecules in the brain, and signaling molecules like dopamine helping users to reach the special high under developed brains can develop more of these reseptors . As more reseptors develop, the more nicotine people will need to reach that high. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, speakers. I am carlos, and i am the c. E. O. Of the Hispanic Chamber of commerce in San Francisco. Thank you for letting me tell you why we oppose this ban. We are representing over 900 businesses over here. We are not just the mission district, we are the entire city of San Francisco. We are here because the Small Business commission offered we need more time to find a specific alternatives for Small Business. Every talk about the Health Issues. The Health Issues are a concern to us. I have six kids, none of them smoke because we strongly believe that education starts at home. Education starts with your family. Not only that education starts with your family, but it also needs to continue to have programs by education, but that doesnt mean doing it by punishing Small Businesses. Were losing Small Businesses. Today, yesterday, i was here in city hall. I went to visit three of my businesses, theyre already closed. Were losing Small Businesses. Its not just an issue of health, its an issue of Small Businesses. This, we have the right to have Small Businesses to sell it. This is the life and the survival of Small Businesses. So we, the Hispanic Chamber of commerces of San Francisco that support a Small Business finding that put alternatives to the Small Business, and in the meantime, as soon as it is legal, please allow them to do the sale. We need to survive the Small Businesses in San Francisco. We are going to lose it, and if you dont do something about it, were going to continue to lose it. I know that supervisor walton says he doesnt care about the business clerk thank you. Next speaker, please. Before we continue on, id like to through the chair and honored guests, remind the public of rule number 3, that we will not hear any booing or chattering or thumbs up. If you dont approve of what the speaker is saying, a thumbs down. Thank you. Yes, my name is roland chen, and im with the vapor smoke shop in Downtown District 6. This vape ban will end my business existence in s. F. , leading up to empty stores and on the hook for a longterm lease agreement. My business is 100 Vape Products, evtherefore, im goi to be 100 out of business. Personally, i was an occasionally smoker, but when i found vaping, i have been healthier since and havent had a cigarette in almost six years. Our store doesnt only provide smoking reduction products, we provide education on what product to give. I. D. Checking has been a directive number one in our store since our inception back in 2013 when legal age was raised to 21. Nothing has changed for verification processes. Our store has a clean record for almost five years. If this ban is approved, the front line age verification will be demolished. Its almost a guarantee that a black market will arise, and therefore, the age verification will be gone. Youre going to have more students, more underage getting nothing this process without any front line verification at the retail front. Im not here to say that vaping is 100 safe, but when compared to a traditional combustible cigarette, its exceptionally better, and isnt Harm Reduction a focus in San Francisco . With needle exchanges, and Harm Reduction facilities, why is San Francisco being critical of Vape Products . Clerk next office and determine an impact that this ban would have on both city revenue and industry. In the report referenced in the legislation, the Youth Risk Behavior survey, it was noted that less than 7 of current San FranciscoHigh Schoolers are using electronic cigarettes. 30 of them verified they got it from a store, which they did not verify if that store was located in San Francisco. Less than 1 of San Francisco students are accessing these products in stores, which were not confirmed in San Francisco. We are in support of the legislative intent of this as it relates to consumption, abating youth consumption, we do not feel this legislation will have the intended effect of reducing youth access as it is not addressing the [inaudible] clerk next speaker, please. Hello. My name is stephen, and i smoked for over 50 years. And i tried the other patches, i smoked over the patch. But since i switched over to ecigarettes, specifically jool, my lungs cleared up. I dont have phlegm anymore. I can breathe better. My health is a lot better. Im going to be 69 this year, so im very blessed that cigarette smoking didnt kill me, but i think this city is a little hypocritical here with the nonf. D. A. Approval. The whole state just approved marijuana, and thats definitely not f. D. A. Approved. I dont know, just like i dont know if you can really use this as an excuse, okay . But i understand why because we, this p. C. , okay . Politically correct, and thats all ive got to say. Thank you very much. Clerk next speaker, please. Hey, thats what i was going to say. Supervisors, my name is will. Im here with the coalition for reasonable vaping regulation. I was a smoker for ten years, and quit for a while with the gum, and then had some trouble last year. To kill the nerves, i started smoking again, but i didnt want to go down that road again. So i learned about vaping, which is an elegant solution. Its much like smoking, but i didnt have the same kind of health effects. Im a valet. I run for a living, and once i switched to vaping in very short order, well, i could keep up with the rest of the guys and, you know, i have a resting heart rate of 54 beats per minute, oh, thats right. So i find it a healthful, useful tool for going from combustible cigarettes for adults. The ban would make that impossible its not only stores where the ban is taking place. It would ban online sales, which is the bulk of the source of getting my jool pods in this case, and thats just too far reaching in my opinion for getting me away from something that was harmful and towards something that is helpful, and im im against the ban for those reasons. Thank you. [names read] my name is imad, and i am Business Owner in San Francisco since 1993. What im going to say is about oh, my god, i forgot. All right. About the banning. What im trying to do is give you example about banning the cigarette. First of all, i have kids, and i dont want my kids to die from smoking or i dont want my business to survive on the backs of my kids. But when you ban the flavored cigarettes and the menthol cigarettes, what its created, its created the black market. When you ban the ecigarettes, a truck starts coming from nevada full of flavored cigarettes and menthol cigarettes. I ask my kids, how do friends get all these pods for the cigarettes. They tell me they are not getting it from a local store. Everything, they are getting it from online. They can get fake i. D. , they can get access from alibaba. He has all kinds of cigarettes, all kind of ejuice. Actually as Business Owners, we are responsible. We are setting the standard for selling to minors, so we are always responsible and we always check i. D. Thank you. Clerk thank you, next speaker, please. Supervisors walton, stefani, and mandelman, im standing here to oppose this ban and im calling you to educate. As the president of the dr. Martin luther king foundation, dr. King smoked. He was a smoker, and i think what is needed is more education. We cant just sit it in the lap of families, we have to involve communitybased organizations. We have to engage our board of education. My son goes to school. Hes learning about puberty in school, junior high. Are kids learning about smoking in school . I think we have to think creative and not take away peoples choices. A lot of people have the opportunity to choose what theyll do. I call for you all to create regulations for this particular item. Thank you. Thats a hard act to follow. Berman, executive director of the American Petroleum and Convenience Store organization. We represent a number of Convenience Stores here in San Francisco. We support the attributes of what the proponents are trying to do, in terms of keeping Tobacco Products outside people under the age of 21. However, our methods are a little different. As the gentleman previous to me said, its about regulation. We should have more enforceable regulations. We as retailers are on the front lines of age verification. We dont want to jeopardize our businesses for selling tobacco to anyone under 21. We want to be sitting at the table with policy makers to try and carve sustainable, realistic approaches to try to deal with this Public Policy dates. Ill give you two dates. 1920 to 1933. What happened between those two dates . Prohibition. Alcohol was banned. What happened during that . A lot of people enriched themselves. The black market. A lot of people died because of bathtub gins and a lot of things in america. This will create an illicit black market for these items in america. Im willing to sit at the table with the American Lung association, members of the city council and work to carve something out. Thats all. Lets work together. Hello. My name is kevin. Im a local businessman, northern california. Doctor just answered a question that one of the speakers asked, do we have a study if the ecigarette is less harmful than the regular cigarette. I would request the doctors, the American Association and our local policy makers, why not ask the question to the horses mouth . Ask the smokers how they feel . Ask the vapors how they feel . Have their life changed . Instead of making decisions ourselves just because it looks good, think about the freedom. When someone is over 21 is buying a legal product. The f. D. A. , if jool was so bad, they would not have allowed it. If you ask the smokers and the vapors, youll get the right answer. I cant ask a truck driver to drive a plane. I definitely dont want to crash. Thank you. Good afternoon, committee members. My name is stephen and im with t. H. R. Policy. Even though the citys density of minors is far below the national average, the percentage of re