City Government

San Francisco City Ordinance Targets Flavored Tobacco Products

Published

9 years ago

May 5, 2017

By Manny Otiko | California Black Media

The city of San Francisco has announced a new ordinance last week that cracks down on tobacco sales. The tobacco control ordinance, which was authored by Supervisor Malia Cohen and Supervisor Ahsha Safai, targets flavored tobacco products.

“This is the most comprehensive municipal restriction on flavored tobacco in the country,” said Cohen.

According to Cohen, flavored tobacco is targeted towards young Black consumers and is designed to make them long-time customers.

“Flavored tobacco hooks new smokers and makes them lifelong users. It can be more harmful and harder to quit than unflavored tobacco,” said Cohen. “Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, specifically cancers. This legislation will have a tremendous impact on the disturbing disparities for tobacco-related illnesses, and will reduce the number of new tobacco users that pick up the habit annually.”

She added San Francisco is facing the cost of paying for tobacco-related illnesses. Cohen said smoking-related illnesses cost the city more than $380 million per year in direct expenses.

Menthol cigarettes are popular with Black smokers, and there is a reason behind this. According to Cohen, menthol flavoring adds taste, and this makes it easier to consume the product. The industry also backs this up with heavy marketing.

“Since the Civil Rights Era, Big Tobacco companies have perniciously targeted the African American community with mentholated tobacco products,” said Dr. Valerie Yerger of the University of California San Francisco. Yerger also said tobacco kills more African Americans yearly than AIDs, homicides, police-related shootings and diabetes.

“Young people are susceptible to marketing,” added Cohen. “They are bombarded with advertising.”

The ordinance targets tobacco, but avoids addressing concerns around marijuana which anti-marijuana advocates in the past have had concerns with the names of flavors they believe also target kids. Cohen said she is less concerned about marijuana because restrictions are preventing that industry from marketing its products to people under 21.

However, Cohen is not the only California lawmaker who launched an anti-smoking bill. Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) recently announced a proposed bill that prohibits retailers from accepting coupons, promotions or discounts on tobaccos sales. Last November, California voters approved Proposition 56, which added a $2 per pack tax on cigarettes and other smoking products. Tobacco retailers countered by offering discounts and promotions to lower the prices of their products.

“Sadly, the tobacco industry continues to trick consumers into becoming long-term addicts by artificially lowering the price of tobacco products,” said McCarty in a press release. “This legislation will put a stop to this deadly promotional tactic and continue California’s progressive efforts to reduce tobacco consumption in the state.”

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”