San Francisco Pushes Ahead on Vaping Ban With Voters’ Support

(Bloomberg) -- San Franciscans voted to move forward with a ban on e-cigarette sales in the city, delivering a firm defeat to Juul Labs Inc. in its hometown.

Officials passed a law this year to prevent anyone, regardless of age, from buying nicotine vaporizers until the products receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The move, which goes into effect next year, is designed to stem adoption of nicotine by children.

An overwhelming majority of more than 80% voted against an effort that had been led by Juul seeking to overturn the prohibition, according to preliminary results. If it had passed, stores in San Francisco would have been able to continue selling nicotine pods and other e-cigarette products.

Juul, the biggest e-cigarette maker in the U.S., has said a ban would make it harder for smokers to switch to a less harmful alternative and push vaping users back to tar-burning cigarettes, which remain legal in San Francisco. Juul provided early funding to a political group that organized the ballot initiative, known as Proposition C. A campaign to defeat the measure was funded by Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP.

For months, the debate played out in fliers, television commercials and bus station advertising. Then, suddenly, Juul said in late September that it would stop funding the Yes on C campaign. The about-face was part of a set of changes at the e-cigarette maker, which had just days earlier replaced its chief executive officer. The new CEO, K.C. Crosthwaite, said that in addition to suspending its support of Prop C, it would also stop FDA lobbying efforts and end all advertising in the U.S.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen Huet in San Francisco at ehuet4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Colum Murphy

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