San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban the sale of e-cigarettes within the city, putting it on track to become the first U.S. city to outlaw the nicotine vaporizers. Through a pair of ordinances prohibiting both brick-and-mortar and online sales, the city hopes to confront the youth vaping epidemic.
“We spent a few decades fighting Big Tobacco in the form of cigarettes,” San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton said of the ban. “Now we have to do it again in the form of e-cigarettes.”
The ban is a blow to Juul Labs, the largest domestic maker of vaping devices, headquartered in San Francisco. The legislation will move on to San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who has committed to signing it. Once signed, the ban will go into effect in the first few months of 2020.
