Prop 31 would uphold ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products
As November 8 Election Day approaches, KPIX 5 offers a series of reports highlighting the candidates as well as measures and issues affecting voters.
BERKELEY -- Proposition 31 asks voters in November to uphold a 2020 law prohibiting retail sales of certain flavored tobacco products in-person or at vending machines. The issue is drawing people on both sides to share their personal connections in favor and in opposition to Prop 31.
"If it's not there, that's not something that's constantly on the back of students' minds," said Shriya Ramdas, a pre-med sophomore at UC Berkeley. "We don't have a cure-all for cancer and so the easiest and the best way to stop these unnecessary deaths from happening is preventing cancer and especially preventing it at a young age."
Ramdas has volunteered for the American Cancer Society since she was in high school and spent time on campus this fall trying to raise awareness about Prop 31 in between classes and studying for exams. She hopes to convince more eligible voters her age to support Prop 31. The "Yes" campaign has argued 80% of underage tobacco users started with flavored products, according to a 2015 report from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Supporters also point to the U.S. Surgeon General and the FDA labeling youth e-cigarette use an epidemic.
"A lot of young people don't really have the education about how this is going to lead them to cancer," she told KPIX 5. "I felt like the use was a lot more prevalent in high school than I see in college which is quite unfortunate."
A "No" vote on Prop 31 would allow in-person store and vending machine sales of flavored tobacco products and tobacco product flavor enhancers to continue as allowed by other federal, state, and local policies. Many communities in the Bay Area already have a ban on the sale of these products, those laws would not change if Prop 31 fails.
"They don't care what the law is, they're still going to do it," said Frank Sohrabi, the co-owner of Vapor Devils in southern California. "All this law is going to do is going to make it hard for people who are buying it legitimately."
Sohrabi's store is located in a part of the state where there isn't a current ban on flavored tobacco products. But he worries about how Prop 31 would affect his business and the people who have turned to vape products to stop use of traditional cigarettes. He smoked for 20 years but made the switch to e-cigarettes and decided to open a vape products store.
"You know, you could make a lot of people go back to smoking cigarettes again as well as putting us out of business for no reason," he told KPIX 5. "You're not going to stop that, if they're doing it illegally, they're doing it illegally."
He explains that everyone has to show identification and that adults like the flavors. If Prop 31 passes, he worries about a rise in crime from illegal sales and losing a regulated location for purchasing these products. He also says his staff will become unemployed since his shop does not sell any other products. It's a business he has built over 10 years with his personal savings invested into the store.
"If I don't have juice or flavors as you call it, to sell, what am I going to sell?" Sohrabi said.
Opponents of the proposition argue that youth vaping use has dropped over the past three years and youth smoking is at an all-time low, according to a survey from the CDC and the FDA. They also claim the state will lose $1 billion in state tax revenue over the next four years.
But supporters of Prop 31 have also claimed the state will save at least $800 million in tobacco-related health care costs with a ban across California.
"There's a very easy way to prevent kids from getting hooked and that's banning the sale," Ramdas said.