City Government

Oakland, San Francisco Seek Ban on Tobacco Products That Target Teens and Children

Published

9 years ago

May 11, 2017

By Post Staff and Kaiser Health News

Oakland City Councilmembers Annie Campbell Washington and Larry Reid, backed by a coalition of health groups, announced this week that they are seeking to pass a groundbreaking citywide ban on flavored tobacco products that target young people.

San Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen, who spoke at the press event Tuesday on the steps of Oakland City Hall, has proposed a similar ordinance in San Francisco, that would ban the retail sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco or tobacco-related products and goes beyond more narrow laws on flavored tobacco in cities such as Chicago, Berkeley and New York.

“This is a fight against Big Tobacco, (which) for so long has had free reign to target our children. This legislation prohibits the sale of Tobacco products in Oakland,” said Campbell Washington.

Describing his personal fight to quit smoking, Councilmember Reid said that he has had heart surgery four times and has only recently been able to break the smoking, saying Oakland must stop the sale of flavored tobacco products by an industry that “does not care bout the health of our young people.”

“This is groundbreaking legislation,” said Supervisor Cohen. “We are hoping we will inspire (other) cities in this state and other state across the nation” to pass similar laws.

“For too log the tobacco industry has gotten a pass,” she said. “It is criminal that people are being killed by diseases that are preventable.”

Other speakers at the press conference included Dr. Muntu Davis, Alameda County Health Officer and Public Health Director; George Holland, Oakland NAACP president; Jane Garcia, Chief Executive Officer, La Clinica de La Raza; Dr. Carol McGruder African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council chair; Dr. Valerie Yerger, African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council; and Dr. Philip Gardiner, Nicotine Dependence and Neurosciences Program officer.

The proposed ordinance is designed to address two major groups, youth and minorities, who have been targeted in successful, well-financed advertising campaigns that promote menthol cigarettes and flavored non-cigarette tobacco products.

Nearly 9 in 10 African-Americans who smoke prefer menthol cigarettes, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Menthol is believed to make the harmful chemicals contained in cigarettes more easily absorbed by the body, and some research shows that menthol cigarettes are more addictive than regular ones, according to the CDC.

“African-Americans don’t have a genetic disposition that makes them smoke menthol cigarettes,” said Dr. Yerger, an associate professor of health policy at the University of California-San Francisco. “It’s the result of a very conscious advertising campaign by the tobacco industry.”

Menthol cigarettes are also preferred by a majority of Latinos and Asian-Americans who smoke, according to Randy Uang, director of tobacco prevention and control services at Breathe California, a Golden Gate Public Health Partnership.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

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January 2, 2026

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Oakland Post: Week of December 24 – 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

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December 25, 2025

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Alameda County

Oakland Council Expands Citywide Security Cameras Despite Major Opposition

In a 7-1 vote in favor of the contract, with only District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife voting no, the Council agreed to maintain its existing network of 291 cameras and add 40 new “pan-tilt-zoom cameras.”

Published

2 weeks ago

December 21, 2025

Oakland Post

At the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Flock Safety introduces new public safety technology – Amplified Intelligence, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to improve law enforcement investigations. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

The Oakland City Council this week approved a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety for a mass surveillance network of hundreds of security cameras to track vehicles in the city.

In recent weeks hundreds of local residents have spoken against the camera system, raising concerns that data will be shared with immigration authorities and other federal agencies at a time when mass surveillance is growing across the country with little regard for individual rights.

The Flock network, supported by the Oakland Police Department, has the backing of residents and councilmembers who see it as an important tool to protect public safety.

“This system makes the Department more efficient as it allows for information related to disruptive/violent criminal activities to be captured … and allows for precise and focused enforcement,” OPD wrote in its proposal to City Council.

According to OPD, police made 232 arrests using data from Flock cameras between July 2024 and November of this year.

Based on the data, police say they recovered 68 guns, and utilizing the countywide system, they have found 1,100 stolen vehicles.

However, Flock’s cameras cast a wide net. The company’s cameras in Oakland last month captured license plate numbers and other information from about 1.4 million vehicles.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting, Fife was critical of her colleagues for signing a contract with a company that has been in the national spotlight for sharing data with federal agencies.

Flock’s cameras – which are automated license plate readers – have been used in tracking people who have had abortions, monitoring protesters, and aiding in deportation roundups.

“I don’t know how we get up and have several press conferences talking about how we are supportive of a sanctuary city status but then use a vendor that has been shown to have a direct relationship with (the U.S.) Border Control,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Several councilmembers who voted in favor of the contract said they supported the deal as long as some safeguards were written into the Council’s resolution.

“We’re not aiming for perfection,” said District 1 Councilmember Zac Unger. “This is not Orwellian facial recognition technology — that’s prohibited in Oakland. The road forward here is to add as many amendments as we can.”

Amendments passed by the Council prohibit OPD from sharing camera data with any other agencies for the purpose of “criminalizing reproductive or gender affirming healthcare” or for federal immigration enforcement. California state law also prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data with the federal government, and because Oakland’s sanctuary city status, OPD is not allowed to cooperate with immigration authorities.

A former member of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission has sued OPD, alleging that it has violated its own rules around data sharing.

So far, OPD has shared Flock data with 50 other law enforcement agencies.