San Francisco breaks the Zyn-ternet with a lawsuit against sales of flavored nicotine

“While the products evolve, the strategy remains the same: target youth to be the next generation of consumers using bright colors and sweet flavors,” said Fahad Qurashi, program director of the Bay Area-based Youth Leadership Institute.

The lawsuit also cites a November 2023 report by UC San Diego researchers suggesting that actions by California and local jurisdictions to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products at brick-and-mortar retailers have led to increases in online sales of the products.

“That’s why we want to make it very clear that we will enforce these laws against online retailers to stop them from selling in San Francisco,” Chiu said. “We believe it’s critical to protect our next generation from these dangerous products.”

The companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment.

San Francisco has a long history of being at the forefront of banning flavored tobacco. In 2019, the city became the first in the country to ban all flavored tobacco products from store shelves, including the once-popular Juul vape pen as well as conventional menthol cigarettes.

In 2018, about 11% of high school students in San Francisco were regular vape users, according to the California Youth Tobacco Survey.

The San Francisco Unified School District was among thousands of cities, counties and other school districts that sued tobacco companies for marketing and advertising e-cigarettes to youth in 2019, and many of the cases were consolidated into a class-action lawsuit that led to a $1.2 billion settlement nationwide.

Following the citywide ban and lawsuit, vaping among the city’s youth declined. By 2022, less than 6% of high school students vaped regularly, according to the survey.

from KQED Alex Sala contributed to this report.