Tourism, destroy policy and also lead to premature death of many of your residents. I encourage you to relook at some of these policies and take a look at where some of these policies belong, a trash can. Clerk thank you, next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is jaime, and im with the association of retail outlets. We strongly oppose this proposed ordinance. We oppose this proposal for the following reasons. It would effectively ban almost all vape Harm Reduction products in San Francisco county, exacerbate the Financial Impact of local retailers, likely harm rather than benefit Public Health and do little or nothing to affect youth. It would only promote illicit sales to those under 21 in the city of San Francisco. This proposal will not affect any sales to minor, and it will only inconvenience adults over 21 by causing them to Purchase Online outside of San Francisco or create an illicit market created by this proposed ban. National studies by the f. D. A. Show that and not from traditional retailers that train employees to follow the law. Enacting this proposal will promote illegal illicit markets for these products. Perhaps we should ask ourselves who would be more likely to check i. D. S of a young people . A business with 16 locations in the city or something selling products out of a truck or the back of a car. This proposal rejects Harm Reduction and is contrary to the citys reduction of health issues. In closing, we ask you to not appro approve proposal as is. Thank you for your consideration. Clerk next speaker, please. My name is [inaudible] i would like to oppose ban o of support ban of ecigarette. The risk of ecigarette and combustible cigarette are similar. Thats why we cannot recommend the ecigarette for Harm Reduction and cessation devices. So we just published scientific advanced student report. Basically, it is associated with Heart Disease among all americans, so i want to submit this evidence for the record. Thank you. Supervisor walton thank you. Dennis kelly, rashan murray, judy smith, ben minore, ronald shucart, chris rice, and tony alan. Im dave fagan, California Association of district merchants, past president of the business commission. There are many retailers that wanted to be here today, but theyre busy working, trying to keep their business open. I and all of them oppose this ban. Bans like this hurt Small Businesses and have no indication they do actually curb youth access. In fact, the California Department of Public Health says that the Small Businesses have the best rate of success in preventing youth access. Small businesses are the answers to this problem, not the problem itself. At the end of the day, were all working for the same goal of preventing youth access. However, this ban does affect our neighborhoods, which are struggling with vacant storefronts, and having vacant storefronts, you know, will affect the quality of life for the residents in your neighborhoods. When you do have a struggling business, the best way to turn that struggling business around is to try to increase your revenues and decrease your expenses. If you can do both of them at once, youre able to turn it around. However in San Francisco, we have a challenge in that were setup for failure. City government continues to focus on taxes, mandates, fees, and regulations that decrease our revenues and increase our expenses. My question to everyone on the board of supervisors is which proposal, tax, mandate, fee, or regulation will be the next to close a business in your neighborhood and create a vacant storefront . Thank you. Clerk next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is bob gordon, and im cochair of the San FranciscoTobacco Free Coalition. Supervisors, how can we not be inspired by San Francisco icon henny kelly speaking out. At the hearing the jool convention here in town, she asked, which convention should i go to . Its estimated by the journal of American Medical Association pediatrics that just came out last week that nearly 90 of 1y ool jools social media followers are under 21. Please, parents, friends, neighbors, lets take this logical next step. Thank you. [inaudible] they are the number one predator of our people. We want to applaud you, shaman, supervisor shaman, because youre taking strong leadership. We know that jool has been taking the whole country, trying to use our African American people across the country because of their marketing to our children. When we talk about Harm Reduction, i was here in San Francisco when we fought for needle exchange. Needle exchange was not about sprinkling needles all over the city for anybody who might want to become an i. V. Drug user, as what jool is doing all over the city. We werent encouraging people to become i. V. Drug users with aids in the day. We know that this product kills people, so whats the measurement of whats the measurement of how that compares to combustible cigarettes . If jool kills one out of 10 and cigarettes kill 4 out of 10, does that mean we want it in our measure . The California Department of Public Health is investing in our public population. Theres revenues coming down because of the tobacco tax. This will be accompanied by more cessations for people, so this is part of our supervisor walton stop the war on drugs, amos elberg. Rudy acersion, rudy perez, lorne dike, wyatt, jessica baker. Next speaker. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is ben minore, and im a member of the Filipino Chamber of commerce. I had a wonderful speaker and then it dawned on me what happened in the 80s and the 70s. Im an educator, and i was a gang specialist for the state of california. I also worked with your police department, what i realized is that were going to be dealing with a commodity that could become your modern day contraband. I dont want the children to have access to it, but if you dont regulate it the way others have said it, then we will have more than just a health issue. We will have a crime issue, so i said to the officers and leaders in the 80s, get your head out of the sand because the horse is out of the barn, and if we dont take control of this as parents and educate our parents to become parents, as frontline educators to protect children from abusing themselves, we wont be able to do it. So i hope you dont put this as a bandaid to serving the children of our community. Thank you for your time. Supervisor walton next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is antonio lau. I remember the hispanic chambers of commerce in San Francisco. We are a coalition of five chambers. My organization opposed to this ban because of two major reasons. Number one, the ban will not solve the problem of health to our youth. Second, it will create a bigger problem. Number one, i believe good, Healthy Habits starts at home and starts with a good education policy in our schools and at home. All we are doing with this ban is to push this Tobacco Products into the black market, and allow organized crime to make a profit out of this and increase online sales. The youth will still be at risk if we push these products into the black market. And number two, were going to have a huge Economic Impact to our members. Our economys based on the Small Businesses. Most of us are family owned, minority businesses, that they depend on the sales of these legal products, so please, think about what Economic Impact it will have on all these minority families before you make a decision. And how are you going to compensate for their Economic Loss . Because a lot of our jobs are going to be lost if this ban goes through. Thank you. My names chris rice. Im a resident of soma, a resident of San Francisco. Im a jool employee, and i just decided to share with you the story of why i decided to work at jool. I was happy at my job and had a negative opinion as many of you do. As i learned more about the company and more about the mission to eliminate combustible cigarettes, i started to think about my own life. The very first memory i hearkened back to was the death of my grandfather from lung disease. If we think back, we probably have lost all of our aunts and uncles, especially in the south, where smoking is prevalent, to combustible cigarettes. So i feel very fortunate to be a part of an organization that provides satisfying alternatives to people that can actually make the switch. Youve heard from some of those people here today. So i just wanted to speak to that and bring a face to who were talking about. Oftentimes, we otherize and stigmatize these issues. Id encourage you to look at other nations, other councils that have actually embraced Harm Reduction, especially around Vape Products and do a little bit of research, and i think youll find some very promising things for our future. Thanks. Clerk next speaker, please. Hi. My names judy smith. I taught school in San Francisco for 35 years. I started smoking when i was 25, two packs a day until i was 37. I stopped when i was pregnant. My mom died of lung cancer. I was diagnosed can breast with Breast Cancer eight years ago. Even with the diagnosis, i couldnt stop smoking. I have used these products cutting down from not just using huge amounts of pods, but putting my own juice into my pens, and i intend to completely stop at one point. The long hall. Until i started vaping, i couldnt switch away from cigarettes and combustion. I havent touched one in almost six years. I have a daughter, i taught school, and the proposed policy ban is not a successful idea. Bans work in our heads. They dont work in reality. They provoke children to find better ways of getting around them. Forbidden fruit is always more exciting. Why are we leaving alcohol on the shelf . In my mind, alcohol shouldnt be there. If you hide things from kids, theyll find ways to get it. Parents should raise their kids to be educated, well educated, and they should also be well educated about vaping, Harm Reduction, and the opioid epidemic. I just think curtailing my rights or other adults that are able to access legal products is an unfair action. Good afternoon again. My names starchild, outreach director for the Libertarian Party of San Francisco, outreach s. F. We know that addiction to nicotine can be harmful and dangerous, but i want to talk about an addiction that is more harmful and dangerous, and that is indicated by behavior of the board of supervisors. Its starting to look like the board is addicted to banning things. Fur, robots on the streets, flame retardant couches. These are all the Little Things that are partially banned or de facto banned, like tiny houses, which in the midst of a housing crisis formula retail, thats a ban in many neighborhoods, disallowed. This is just a symptom of an even more fund gentleman tall and dangerous form of addiction in our community, which is the addiction to power. We know that theres a power addiction problem. Thats why we have term limits. Supervisors have limits on how many terms they can serve, otherwise, some of them would be in there forever. Power is very addictive, and id like to encourage supervisors, fight this addiction. Please stop banning things. Leave people alone to live their own lives as long as they are not initiating force or fraud against others. Our bodies belong to us. What you put into your bodies should be your choice. Members of the community, if you want to address this dangerous addiction to power, please help clerk thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is amos elberg. Im one of your constituents, and im here to speak against the banning of Online Vaping products. I smoked for many years until i switched to jool products, which were effective in getting me not to stop using nicotine, but in using Tobacco Products. From my own belief, i think that jool pods are less harmful than cigarettes, which is why i switched. Much of what youve heard today concerning Youth Activity and vaping occurred prior to the ban that went into effect in january. Since then, it has become extraordinarily difficult to purchase vaping products in San Francisco. Today, the only time that i would smoke a cigarette is when it gets to the end of the month when the mailorder from jool hasnt arrived because it is that hard to buy them here. If you ban those online sales, i will have to go back to cigarettes or move. Anybody, any child who has been obtaining those products via mailorder since january, its inconceivable to me that a parent could learn their child obtained that product through the mailorder since january and would be concerned about the nicotine other than the mail fraud and Identity Fraud that would be involved in that purchase. Id like to address briefly the science. There is a lot of science back and forth. The f. D. A. Has chosen to take a waitandsee attitude. The u. K. Encourages them. I would respectfully submit that that scientific dispute is one that this committee is not in a position to resolve. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is rudy asercion, and im with the National Association of filipino americans. I oppose this on behalf of my members of my association. My members told me since they started using ecigarettes and stopped using tobacco, their health is better, and they have a better outlook on life. Theyre afraid that taking away this choice from them will get them to start smoking tobacco again. So i encourage you to approach the legislation, and only because im a big proponent of freedom of choice. We give everybody a freedom of choice. Why are we going to restrict our residents of San Francisco from that freedom of choice . Its the jurys still out whether ecigarette is harmful or more harmful or more helpful, but we have testimonies here that ecigarettes have been helping a lot of people who used to smoke, and their health is and theyre feeling better because their health is improved, so i urge you to reject this legislation. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, committee members. My name is nicolle, and im a resident of district 5 in San Francisco, and im here to speak in opposition of the proposed ban of ecigarettes. Im proud to say ive been cigarette free for five years and was able to do so by crisping to nicotine vape switching to nicotine vaping products. As an adult over the age of 21, i should have access to these products and not not pub issue punished by my choice to use tobacco and not be forced to travel to other communities to obtain these products. If folks want it, they will find access through other channels that are not taxed and safety vetted. Please consider other bans here, and thank you for your consideration. Supervisor walton shawn patterson, jason erington, juan low, wilson chao, chow yu. Yu. Good afternoon, supervisors. Full disclosure, i am a jool labs employee. In 2003, my grandfather passed away from emphysema and copd. It was a years long process, and the only reason he stopped was because he couldnt breathe anymore. Years after my mother passed away, my mother confided to me that even on his death bed, he would have killed for a cigarette. In my function at jool labs, i interact with a lot of people in the labor in the trades field, electricians, plumbers, locksmiths, general contractors, painters. On their own accord and out of their own curiosity, they go and purchase a device legally because theyve been smoking for years, and then, they come, and they confide in me and tell me that they havent had a cigarette in days, weeks, mont months, and that they can finally breathe again, that they can finally taste food again, that their spouses and kids are proud of them, and that their clothes dont smell again. And all i can think of are that families wont have to go through what i went through. And i would appreciate if you can consider all of the different external circumstances that would happen if you were to put this ban in place. Thank you for your time. Good afternoon. My name is jessica baker. Im also an employee at jool labs. I came to work at jool about 2. 5 years ago purely based on two things. One, the people, and two, the mission. Our mission is simple. Its to eliminate combustible cigarettes worldwide. Currently, 1 billion smokers are using cigarettes, and thats a powerful mission, and that was enough to make me inspired to work here. As a child of the 80s, much of my holidays at grandmas house were consumed with big clouds of smoke inside as they all sat around and smoked cigarettes, and me and my brother would hide from the smoke and go upstairs and seek refuge wherever we could. My grandmothers now 83 years old and suffering from copd. There was no alternative to cigarettes at that time, and now shes suffering. Mentally and physically, shes healthy as can be, but when it comes to hur lungs, they are her lungs, theyre failing her due to her longterm smoking habits. My father was a smoker, and the first thing i did when i started working at jool was hand him a device and a pack of pods. I am actually proud to say he has not smoked since that day. I actually recently call