Student-Led initiative prompts Richmond City Council to ban some tobacco products in 2019
on February 20, 2018
Colorfully-packaged tobacco products like Swisher Sweets and Backwoods are mainstays in corner stores across the country. Some say that the bright wrapping and flavors like peach and fruit punch make these products attractive to the kids who encounter them while buying snacks. That’s why by the end of 2018, retailers within Richmond’s city limits will be barred from selling these products.
For the last two years, a group of local high school students who collaborated with the Youth Tobacco Advocacy and Policy Project (YTAPP) conducted research about the about the number of tobacco retailers in West Contra Costa County. The students found that neighborhoods with the lowest income residents had the highest number of tobacco retailers. They argued that this was unfair, and that the tobacco industry is preying on low-income communities by concentrating tobacco advertisements in places with a lot of black and brown people.
“It’s so normalized in these types of communities,” said YTAPP student Lynsey Inthasone, a senior at DeAnza High School. “Especially if they’re low-income and have more minorities.”
“You look at other communities, and they don’t have these kind of retailers,” said Karina Guadalupe, director of YTAPP, comparing the number of tobacco retailers in Richmond to a more affluent city like Orinda.
Vice Mayor Melvin Willis introduced the ordinance last year. In early February, city council members voted on specific terms, such as allowing stores to continue to sell flavored tobacco products that come in packs of five because these cost more money, and are considered less accessible to kids than the single packs that cost $2 or less.
City manager Bill Lindsay says he will work with the city attorney to organize workshops to inform affected retailers about the city council’s adoption process and the changes that will come with the new tobacco ordinance. Lindsay says he plans to take the retailers’ feedback to city council members before they conduct their first reading of the newly drafted ordinance, which is expected to happen sometime in March.
This story was updated on February 23, 2018 with information about the outreach that the city manager will conduct.
3 Comments
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First of all I really have no issue with this ordinance and its intent. Secondly I have no sympathy for tobacco products or those who retail them especially to children.
But I would like to remind people that these products are sold in low income neighborhoods because there exists a demand for them there, otherwise they would not be sold there. Let’s stop pretending that residents here are hapless zombies at the mercy of liquor and tobacco companies. These products do not proliferate in places like Orinda because the educated and health conscious residents there would not support them, they would go broke. Similarly one does not find organic food stores in lower income neighborhoods because they also would go broke for lack of sales.
My point is only that one must actually change the culture in low income neighborhoods as well for these type of restrictions to actually work. Simply banning things is not the answer, prohibition taught us that. You must educate people so that there is no longer the demand for these unhealthy products. Many good people and organizations are working to this end in Richmond today like Urban Tilth, farmers market, and Rancho Market refusing to sell alcohol, and that is a wonderful thing to see. But this is still a town that loves junk food, tobacco and unhealthy choices.
Again, I think this ordinance is a step in the right direction for sure I just think the article oversimplified the issue.
A ban on alcohol in Richmond stores would also be good. Let the drunks move to El Cerrito.
Abené Clayton, thanks so much for the post.Really thank you! Keep writing.