[GPSCC-chat] Urgent - Emails & Phone Calls Needed to oppose tobacco companies pushing products in San José

[Spencer Graves]

Hello, All:


       Brian Davis, Tri-City Health, spoke to us May 22 about tobacco 
companies offering coupons for $1 pack of cigarettes "buy 1 get 1 free" 
at local bars.  He's been working to get a San José city ordinance 
against such.  San José residents are encouraged to send emails and call 
their city council representatives asking for their support on this.  
Brian said it was on a tentative agenda for November 18 but will likely 
be "postponed" (possibly forever) unless enough people react before 
Wednesday, Nov. 12.  This is related to our support for universal health 
care.


       For more details, see Brian's email below.


       Spencer


On Sunday, November 9, 2014 6:45 PM, "Davis, Brian" 
<BDavis at tri-cityhealth.org> wrote:


*Please do this if you can, and spread around. Thanks!*

If you think it is a serious problem that tobacco companies are giving 
out coupons for packs of cigarettes that can be purchased for just $1 
and free e-cigarette products in San Jose’s bars, we need your help 
right away! (If you don’t think it’s serious, see the sample email below 
to find out why it is.)

A proposal to stop this targeting of vulnerable young adults in the 
South Bay was going to be considered by the San Jose City Council on 
November 18th, but now that health initiative (called Butt Out of Our 
Bars) has been delayed until some undetermined time next year, when the 
new Council will look at it as part of a “prioritization” process which 
could result in it’s being completely discarded or given such a low 
priority that it will never be dealt with.

If we are going to have any chance of this important public health issue 
being addressed this year we need to show the Council that the public 
cares about Big Tobacco targeting our young adults! *The final agenda 
for the November 18^th hearing will be determined this* *Wednesday.*

*Will you help by sending an email and calling the Councilmembers' 
offices as soon as possible and no later than Wednesday morning?*See 
below for sample language, but it is always best if you create your own 
message with your own personal reasons for why this is something that 
needs to get done NOW, and not some unidentified time in the future (maybe).

If you are nervous about calling, don't worry, you won't be speaking to 
the Councilmembers, just a polite member of his or her staff who will 
take note of your statement and pass it on. If you are uncomfortable 
talking to anyone at all, you can call outside of regular 9-5 business 
hours (or anytime on Tuesday, when they will be off for Veteran's Day) 
and leave a recorded message. The important thing is to let them know 
that this is urgent and you want them to put us back on the 11/18 agenda.

*Remember, you need to call and email /no later than/ Wednesday morning!*
* *
/(If you are under 21 and don’t want to talk about bars, you could talk 
about how it is legal to give out free e-cigarettes anywhere in San 
Jose, and that it important to act fast before the city is flooded with 
free e-cigarette products, getting more and more kids hooked on 
nicotine, some of whom have never smoked a tobacco cigarette. There is a 
paragraph in the sample email below that talks about this issue.)/
/ /
If you live in San Jose and know which district you live in, you should 
mention it when you contact that office. You can find a somewhat poor 
map of SJ Council districts here 
<http://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/722>.

Here is a sample phone message:

“Hi. My name is ___ and I live in San Jose (Omit if you don't live in 
SJ). I am calling to express my concern that the Butt Out of Our Bars 
agenda item 5.1has been removed from the November 18^th City Council 
agenda and put off until next year. This is a problem that needs to be 
dealt with now because (give personal reason or just say …) nearly 
everyday in the bars, Big Tobacco is targeting our young adults with $1 
packs of cigarettes and free e-cigarettes that make it easy to get 
hooked on nicotine and hard to quit. What could be more urgent? Every 
other major Bay Area city passed laws against tobacco sampling years 
ago. San Jose is long overdue. Please put the Butt Out of Our Bars 
health initiative back on the November 18^th agenda. Thank you.”

You can find the phone numbers for the Councilmembers and the Mayor here 
<http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=146>.

Here are their emails. You can do one group mailing: 
mayoremail at sanjoseca.gov <mailto:mayoremail at sanjoseca.gov>; 
District1 at sanjoseca.gov <mailto:District1 at sanjoseca.gov>; 
District2 at sanjoseca.gov <mailto:District2 at sanjoseca.gov>; 
District3 at sanjoseca.gov <mailto:District3 at sanjoseca.gov>; 
District4 at sanjoseca.gov <mailto:District4 at sanjoseca.gov>; 
District5 at sanjoseca.gov <mailto:District5 at sanjoseca.gov>; 
pierluigi.oliverio at sanjoseca.gov 
<mailto:pierluigi.oliverio at sanjoseca.gov>; District7 at sanjoseca.gov 
<mailto:District7 at sanjoseca.gov>; rose.herrera at sanjoseca.gov 
<mailto:rose.herrera at sanjoseca.gov>; District9 at sanjoseca.gov 
<mailto:District9 at sanjoseca.gov>; District10 at sanjoseca.gov 
<mailto:District10 at sanjoseca.gov>;

Here is a sample email. Feel free to add your own message explaining why 
this issue matters to you. Thanks for helping stop Big Tobacco’s 
targeting of our young people!

Dear Mayor Reed and Members of the City Council:

I am writing to request that the “Butt Out of Our Bars” Public Health 
Initiative (agenda item 5.1) be added back to the November 18^th 2014 
agenda. At their last meeting, the Rules Committee removed this item for 
the following reasons: that it should be required to go through the 
“prioritization” process, that it wasn’t urgent, and to save time on the 
11/18 agenda. I feel that this decision was incorrect.

Regarding the prioritization issue, not all proposals have to go through 
that process. The Downtown Sidewalks Bicycle Riding proposal (agenda 
item 6.1), which was also discussed last week, has never gone through 
prioritization for example, so clearly exceptions are sometimes made 
when the need is urgent.

The need is very urgent to pass an ordinance in San Jose stopping the 
distribution of coupons that allow young bar patrons to get a pack of 
cigarettes for just $1. Overwhelming research evidence shows that 
keeping tobacco prices higher reduces the number of people that smoke, 
especially among youth and young adults. Tobacco companies have 
scheduled over 560 visits to bars in San Jose since the start of last 
year, so virtually everyday, young vulnerable college students and other 
young adults are being approached by tobacco company representatives 
with offers that make it easier to get hooked on tobacco and harder to quit.

Every day that this activity continues to be legal, more and more young 
adults -- who would not otherwise have bought a pack of cigarettes -- 
are getting hooked on smoking. Many of these young people will never be 
able to break free from this horrible addiction.

One group of people that is especially vulnerable is the Lesbian, Gay, 
Bisexual and Transgender Community, which smokes three times as much as 
the general population in Santa Clara County. Beginning about three 
months ago, Big Tobacco started to step up its attack on that community 
when they began scheduling nearly 50% of their San Jose visits to a gay 
bar. Urgent action is needed to stop this blatant targeting of the LGBT 
Community in San Jose.

Within the last few months, electronic cigarettes have begun to be given 
out for free in San Jose’s bars. There is no current law which would 
keep Big Tobacco from expanding their e-cigarette giveaways beyond the 
bars to community fairs, or on the sidewalk in front of stores near 
schools. We need to act quickly to prevent the potential for a dramatic 
increase in the availability of free e-cigarettes in San Jose getting 
our young adults and our children hooked on nicotine.

Five of the six most populated cities in the Bay Area passed laws 
against tobacco sampling years ago. San Jose is the only exception. None 
of these cities (or any other city) has ever been sued or had any other 
difficulties due to the passage of their sampling laws. It is long past 
time for San Jose to stop Big Tobacco from targeting our young adults in 
the bars.

I know City staff time is limited. To make this a quick and easy 
process, the Butt Out of Our Bars campaign has provided model 
legislation from the legal experts at ChangeLab Solutions, and the 
ordinance passed by the City of Richmond, CA in 2009 (which is based on 
that model) to the City Manager’s office. With just a few small changes, 
the Richmond law is exactly what the campaign is proposing for San Jose. 
Let’s get this done quickly to protect as many people as possible.

The Butt Out of Our Bars campaign is only funded through June of 2015. 
If this issue is pushed to next year, legislation may not pass for six 
months or more, but if the ordinance moves forward this year that 
project will be able to provide services to the City such as monitoring 
the bars for compliance with the law, informing and educating bar owners 
and staff and paying for advertising to inform the public. None of this 
enforcement support will be possible if this proposal is forced to go 
through the prioritization process.

Given the clear urgency of this issue, surely time can be made available 
on November 18^th to move this serious public health problem closer to 
being resolved so that the City of San Jose can join every other major 
Bay Area city in the fight against Big Tobacco’s manipulative pricing 
schemes aimed at our young adults.
I appreciate your time and consideration.

Sincerely,



*Brian Davis *
California Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) Coordinator
39465 Paseo Padre Parkway,
Suite 3400
Fremont, CA 94538
Phone: (510) 252-6806
Cell: (510) 459-4122
Fax: (510) 226-5624
Email: BDavis at tri-cityhealth.org <mailto:BDavis at tri-cityhealth.org>

<http://www.tri-cityhealth.org/>

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