In California, the tobacco lobby counterattacks

While the California Senate voted on Friday, August 28, to ban the sale of flavored tobacco and nicotine products, the California Secretary of State announced that he had received a referendum proposal to repeal the new legislation, pushed by figures linked to the industry lobby.[1].

At the end of August, Californian health professionals welcomed a breakthrough in public health. With the exception of hookahs and premium cigars, the sale of tobacco and nicotine products was to be banned from 1^er January 2021 in the most populous state in the United States. However, a petition to overturn this ban and pass it by referendum has been submitted. The stakes of this petition are high: if it manages to collect 623,212 signatures, the new regulation will be suspended and put to a vote in 2022.

An “unfair” and “discriminatory” law

Opponents of this new regulation denounce the supposedly " unfair " of the law, as well as the disproportionate nature of such a ban. Previously, the tobacco industry had also denounced the " discriminant " of such a ban, due to the overrepresentation of black and Latino minorities in the consumption of menthol cigarettes. In reality, this preference is the result of particularly aggressive marketing targeting, the primary consequence of which is to increase health inequalities between the white and African-American communities.

A predatory industry

Since tobacco and nicotine products are vectors for young people to start smoking, the decision to ban them is therefore a protective measure. Historically, tobacco companies have repeatedly sought to undermine tobacco control measures, demonstrating the incompatibility of their interests with those of public health.