Manteca may ban underage vaping.
The City Council Tuesday will decide whether to direct staff to develop an ordinance making it illegal for those under the age of 18 to vape as part of a coordinated effort with San Joaquin County.
The proposal comes less than a month after the City Council voted to explore whether to allow the sale of recreational marijuana in storefronts in Manteca. Local residents can legally have marijuana delivered to their homes from licensed pot dealers located elsewhere such as Modesto but cannot legally buy it from a location within Manteca, commercial or otherwise.
At that meeting Councilman Dave Breitenbucher make it clear that not only did he not support forming an ad hoc committee of fellow council members to explore the pros and cons of allowing licensed commercial cannabis businesses in Manteca including storefront marijuana sales, but that he also believed the city should move to ban vaping among young people.
The Board of Supervisors — at the urging of District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar — is exploring making under age vaping illegal in the county. The supervisors are asking the seven cities within San Joaquin County to join them in adopting similar ordinances. Unless all jurisdictions are on the same page, the supervisors believe any effort to outlaw underage vaping on their part would be of limited value. County staff is expected to bring information regarding such a county ordinance before the supervisors by early January.
In background information prepared by the district attorney’s office it was noted e-cigarettes contain harmful substances such as nicotine, cancer-causing chemicals, volatile organic compounds, ultrafine particles, flavoring agents that have been linked to lung cancer, heavy metals such as nickel as well as tin and lead as well as propylene glycol, glycerin, glycerol, propylene glycol, and benzoic acid.
The DA’s office — citing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — lists the risks from vaping as harming brain development; impacting learning, memory and attention, and increasing the risk for future addiction to drugs.
The CDC indicates benzoic acid is known to cause coughs, sore throat, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. JUUL pods contain about 44.8 mg/ml of benzoic acids whole normal e-cigarettes contain between 0.2 to 2 mg/ml.
JUUL pods also contain a higher concentration of nicotine per pod or roughly double that in e-cigarettes They are also use a more potent form of chemically modified nicotine.
The City Council meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
