Walnut Creek bans sale of flavored tobacco products, electronic smoking devices

Walnut Creek has became the first Contra Costa County city to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products and electronic smoking devices in an effort to curb nicotine addiction among youths.

The ban, approved unanimously Wednesday by the council, will apply to menthol cigarettes, candy vape pens and any other tobacco products that have a distinct flavor besides that of regular cigarettes.

In addition, the policy will prohibit the sale of devices that convert tobacco into vapor for ingestion — a popular alternative to conventional, flame-lit tobacco products. The city will start enforcing the ordinance in five months.

While the ordinance will ban sales for everyone, the council made clear that its intention was to cut off the supply of these addictive products to the city’s youth. Cherise Khaund,  president of the Mount Diablo Unified School District, said at Tuesday’s meeting that use of flavored tobacco and vapes are rampant among students.

Many of the devices for sale come in radiant colors, often in the form of pens, highlighters and USB devices — items that can easily be masked as school supplies. Khaund said students caught with these products admit to obtaining them at gas stations and corner stores, adding that the products are “all so clearly and obviously targeted at youth.”

“What we see in our schools is, despite massive education campaigns and campus supervisors trying to monitor at all times, students are still getting access to these devices,” Khaund said.

Drew Christie, a 17-year-old student at Contra Costa Christian School in Walnut Creek, said he has seen his friends find “a million ways to get access” to vapes and e-cigarettes.

“The ordinance itself does not discriminate, if you will, between youths and adults,” said Assistant City Attorney Brian Hickey said. “But the impetus of the ordinance is essentially… based on the data that they’re overwhelmingly popular with youth smokers.”

The city’s ban is similar to one approved by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in 2019, which applied only to unincorporated areas. San Jose approved a similar ban in September.

California, meanwhile, established a statewide prohibition on flavored tobacco, menthol and electronic smoking devices last year. But the law is currently not being not enforced — opponents garnered enough signatures to bring the issue to voters in the November 2022 election.

No one at spoke out Tuesday against Walnut Creek’s flavored tobacco ordinance, which exempts hookah businesses that allow only customers who are 21 and older to enter.

Some did urge the council not to apply the ban to electronic devices that vaporize marijuana. Hickey said those who need electronic devices to consume pot can find them outside Walnut Creek or order them to their homes.

In voting to approve the ordinance, council members Matt Francois and Cindy Silva said smoking had directly affected their families.

“My children have two grandparents that are not here today due to having died from lung cancer,” Francois said. “One was my mother, who was addicted to menthol cigarettes when I was growing up, and I think this is the latest iteration of that. To the extent we can curb people from getting addicted to these products a young age, that’s what we should do.”