California is the land of bans: plastic bags, gas-powered lawn equipment, and egg sales from chickens that aren’t cage-free.
Now, billionaire Michael Bloomberg has jumped into the fray, funding a ballot measure to outlaw in-person sales of flavored tobacco. He has donated $15.3 million out of the $17.3 million raised for the Proposition 31 committee, SF Gate reported.
COST OF CANDY REACHES RECORD LEVEL
If the law passes, it would join a list of other anti-tobacco laws passed in the Golden State, which was the first to outlaw smoking in restaurants in 1995.
“Today over 2 million middle and high school students nationwide use e-cigarettes,” said the backers of the measure in the California voter guide. “Tobacco companies use candy flavors to hide strong hits of nicotine, a highly addictive drug that is especially dangerous for kids, harming brain development and impacting their attention, mood, and impulse control.”
On the other side, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company have donated a total of $1.9 million to the “no” campaign. The companies say Proposition 31 is aimed at adults and should not be allowed to pass.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Prop. 31 is an adult prohibition and prohibition has never worked — it didn’t work with alcohol or marijuana and it won’t work now,” the voter guide said.
Bloomberg has been against flavored tobacco since at least 2019 when he attempted to influence state, local, and federal governments to outlaw the products. At the time, he was running for president and said during his campaign that he would ban flavored e-cigarettes if he won.
