CA Proposition 31 - Tobacco Company Lawyers Are Scum
CA Proposition 31 - Tobacco Company Lawyers Are Scum
This is a referendum. Don’t be confused.
This item aims to overturn Senate Bill 793, signed into law in 2020, and would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products and tobacco product flavor enhancers, with exceptions for hookah tobacco, loose leaf tobacco, and premium cigars.
“Yes” means California will ban the sale of flavored tobacco products as described above. “No” means the law passed by the legislature banning flavored tobacco products should be overturned.
Yes On Proposition 31, Committee to Protect California Kids
Website/ Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram
Media: Endorsement: Flavored tobacco products kill. Vote yes on Proposition 31
No on Prop 31- Californians Against Prohibition
Website
Media: No on California Proposition 31: This flavored tobacco ban would backfire like prohibition
The movement to ban the sale of flavored tobaccos is a direct consequence of marketing campaigns targeting young people and minority populations. They all but begged for this ban.
R.J. Reynolds and Phillip Morris have known about the negative health impacts of their products for a half century. And they’ve known what vaping is all about.
They’ve lied, cheated, bribed, and litigated to maintain a marketplace presence. Scientists and physicians who’ve sounded the alarm about the dangers of these products have been the targets of campaigns to discredit them personally.
Instead of getting out of the business of marketing nicotine delivery systems these companies have crafted strategies designed to expand their audience through clever packaging, flavoring compounds, and even suggesting their newest products would help wean people off cigarettes. And their marketing efforts in non-industrialized countries are nothing short of obscene.
They’ve had their chance to get out of the business of harming people, to find other ways to make a buck, and opted to stay in the game. Furthermore, they’ve successfully externalized the costs to society resulting from use of their products.
Make no mistake, Big Tobacco has played the political game well enough so that they’ve gotten away with murder and it’s only cost them a few lawsuit settlements.
The CDC estimates that tobacco use in California costs approximately $13.3 billion in health care costs each year, including $3.6 billion in Medi-Cal expenditures.
Flavored products are nothing more than a gateway to lifetime dependence on nicotine.
From Yes on 31:
And the numbers speak for themselves:
Over 2 million middle and high school students now use e-cigarettes
In California, almost all high school e-cigarette users use flavored products
4 out of 5 kids who have used tobacco started with a flavored product
The No on 31 campaign is spending the $21 million+ donated by corporations to try and convince voters that the law is unnecessary, that it will infringe on the rights of adults who use tobacco, and it will cost the state a billion dollars annually in lost tax revenue.
Do the math folks. $13.6 billion in health care costs annually would eventually be saved by not collecting $1 billion in taxes. You have to wonder if Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, who endorsed the No campaign needs to retake third grade math.
The flavored tobacco business is so onerous that only one legislator in both houses in Sacramento could actually be bothered to vote no on this bill back in 2020. (A bunch of Republicans didn’t vote.)
Prop 31 will lose and lose big as long as voters aren’t confused by the fact that a No vote means Yes to big tobacco.
Big tobacco has kept their products on store shelves for another two years with Prop 31, even though they knew from their experience in San Francisco (where 68.4% of voters agreed in 2017 with banning flavored tobacco) that they would lose.
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There’s a larger issue at play here worth mentioning, namely that people engaged in illegal activities under the cover of “normal” business operations are using the fact that attempts by the legislature to fight these crimes can be effectively delayed through the direct democracy process embedded in the California constitution.
This “legal” obstructionism is happening right now on another front. A group calling itself Protect Neighborhood Restaurants has filed paperwork with the attorney general’s office to place a referendum on the ballot that, if successful, would overturn a law aiming to curb common abuses of workers by fast food restaurant chains with more than 100 outlets.
Interest groups should have the right to take issues concerning their focus to the public. But there should be a price for lying and cheating.
Maybe we could bus all their lawyers to Texas. Or Florida.
In the meantime, an informed electorate is the best defense against this kind of corporate malfeasance. Vote Yes on 31.
Full disclosure: I am a cancer survivor; six surgeries over the past decade.
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Next up: Why would the San Diego Democratic Party endorse a loser like Mike Schaefer?
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Previous voter guides:
(More coming soon)
California State Officials
California’s DC Delegation
State Senate Races
State Assembly Races
SD County Supervisors
County Sheriff, Assessor, and Treasurer Races
SD Measure B: Cash Meets Trash
SD Measure C: Reach for the Sky! Or Else?
SD Measure D: Righting a Wrong to Build a Future
SD Measure H: It’s for the Children (And Their Parents)
CA Proposition One: It’s About More Than Abortion
CA Propositions 26 & 27: Betcha Can’t Pick Just One
CA Proposition 28: Arts & Music for a Sane Future
CA Proposition 29: Regulating Dialysis Clinics and the Definition of Insanity
CA Proposition 30: A Poison Pill Concealed by Sweet Promises
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Boards of Education Contests:
Analysis by Thomas Ultican
2022 School Board Contests, Part 1
The County Board, San Diego Unified, Sweetwater Union, Poway Unified
2022 School Board Contests, Part 2
Chula Vista, San Marcos, Vista, Grossmont
2022 School Board Contests, Part 3
Oceanside, Escondido, San Dieguito
2022 School Board Contests, Part 4
Coronado, Carlsbad, Escondido Union
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com