I urge the mayor to vote "no" on allowing the Manhattan Smoke Shop to continue to operate.

Dear Mayor Light and Councilmembers,

I am writing to express my gratitude to the Council for passing the smoke shop ordinance. If strictly enforced, this measure promises significant benefits for the health and safety of our young people. I also wish to express my appreciation to Councilmembers Castle (District 2) and Kaluderovic (District 3) for backing the license revocation of an establishment knowingly selling illicit goods, such as flavored tobacco and unregulated hemp and cannabis products. However, more council members need to understand and follow their lead.

For years, smoke shop operators have treated fines as a mere cost of doing business, outweighed by the profits from selling banned inventory. The owner in question has openly admitted to transporting and selling years-old stock of flavored tobacco from a previous location, in blatant violation of the law. These operators have access to real-time data regarding product recalls and illegal status, yet choose to ignore it. How many second and third chances will you give to this shop owner? I would argue that it doesn’t matter how many second and third chances you provide, he will not stop doing what he wants to do until he is no longer given the chance to do it. With this, I strongly urge the Mayor to veto the recent Council vote that would permit the MB Smoke Shop to remain in business.

Sincerely,

Joanna Edwards
District 1 Resident

I urge the mayor to vote no. The Manhattan Smoke Shop should not be in operation.

I urge the mayor to vote "no" on allowing the Manhattan Smoke Shop to continue to operate.

I am opposed to reinstating MB Smoke Shop’s license as this sends a clear message to other smoke shop owners that it is ok to violate our city’s smoke shop ordinance as long as you pay a fine, a small price to pay for the money coming in from flavored tobacco sales.

In order for the smoke shop ordinance to be effective in curbing illegal sales and protecting children, it must actually be enforced to the full extent of the law.

During the last city council meeting, the owner openly admitted to knowingly selling illegal products in the past to offload inventory. I understand leniency if this was a first-time offense but it is not. I urge the mayor to step up where our district representatives did not and veto the city council vote to reinstate this smoke shop.

Thank you,
Tijen Loubert, District 1 resident

When the city council passed the smoke shop ordinance, it was an important step to protect the health and safety of our community, especially our youth. If the rules are strongly enforced, it will make a real difference. I urge the mayor to veto the recent vote and ask the council to vote "no" on allowing MB Smoke Shop to keep operating. Smoke shops make tobacco, cannabis, and hemp products seem normal and acceptable, which increases the risk that young people will use them. Flavored tobacco has already been banned in California, and vaping has been called a youth epidemic because of its serious health risks. This shop has repeatedly sold illegal products over several years, showing that fines alone have not stopped the behavior.

Thank you,
Nikki Vasquez
Long time D3 Resident

When the city council approved the smoke shop ordinance, it was a huge step forward with regards to protecting our citizens, particularly our youth’s, health and safety. If regularly and decisively enforced, this is a big win resident health and safety.

I am urging our mayor to veto the city council vote and our council to vote “no” on allowing the MB Smoke Shop to continue to operate.

Smoke shops normalize the use of tobacco, cannabis and hemp products for our youth (for all) and there is ample peer-review data from across the US and in CA specifically that support this normalization. The city’s efforts to cull the existing smoke shops down to five and limit new smoke shops is important for the health and safety of our youth and will prevent the use of tobacco, hemp and cannabis products.

Additionally, the passage of CA State Proposition 31, which banned the sale of flavored tobacco, was a hard fought win for hundreds of health organizations and advocates, including the CA State PTA, who endorsed this legislation. Vaping has been classified as an epidemic for our youth and is dangerous for all ages. Data suggests that 80% of youth who use tobacco products will also use cannabis and the reverse is also true, indicating that both tobacco and cannabis are a gateway to the use of both.

For the last several years, smoke shops have openly operated under the premise that a fine is a small price to pay for the thousands of dollars of product that they have in inventory and continue to sell, whether it be the previously illegal hemp products, illegal flavored tobacco or cannabis formulations. This shop owner in question openly stated that he had inventory from a previous store that he moved to a Redondo Beach store from the past three years and was openly selling flavored tobacco. Smoke shop owners are provided with real-time information on products that are recalled and illegal.
This is not a first time occurrence; it is multiple occurrences over several years.

Melissa TM DeChandt, District 1 Resident