This first picture is of a cool tumbler I received from the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) gala in Chicago, where I attended the Second Annual Tobacco End Game Summit last week. I opened the package when I was in Chicago and thought, “How cool that they gave us these mugs to thank us for our advocacy.” But EVEN COOLER was when I looked again and read the BACK of the mug!!!! Now I take this thing with me EVERYWHERE! I love it when advocates OWN IT.

After flying back from Chicago earlier in the day for a Tobacco End Game Summit, I mustered the energy to go online and fight for a robust Tobacco Retail License with my fellow activists for the health of youth who would otherwise become addicted to tobacco. The vitriol from retailers who insisted that they would go belly up if they had to have their sales of POISON curtailed was unbelievable, even using a 9-year-old boy whose parents told him they might lose their house if the TRL passed, rather than find HEALTHY products to sell in their community. I told the City Council about my ties to Brentwood since the 1970s and how my own godfather, a long-time resident of Brentwood on Oak Street, died prematurely from his own smoking. I spoke immediately after a PAID lawyer and got to mention that I was there PRO BONO. You can hear my comments in this video. I’m so pleased that the City Council did not kowtow to the paid attorney and the big businesses and put the health of the community first.

This first video is the excerpt of my comments:

I got most of my prepared comments out before getting cut off by the 2 minute timer:

Good evening City Council. My name is Joseph Hayden. I’m a volunteer co-Chair of Tobacco Free Solano. With my law degree I work pro bono with many counties in the bay area including Coco. Unlike the person who just spoke, I am NOT getting paid to be here. Brentwood is special to me as I’ve had longstanding ties there since the 1970s. My godparents moved to Oak Street with my godbrothers and were very active in the community and in the high schools long before the major growth that took place. Sadly that same godfather died way too young due to his tobacco addiction, leaving my godmother a young widow. In my immediate family numerous others died between the ages of 35 and 50 from their own addiction to tobacco. I’m pleased that Brentwood is considering a relatively robust Tobacco Retail License so that the youth have a better chance to live their best lives without the scourge of addiction since more than 95% of people who smoke started before they were of legal age. I wish all retailers would wake up and stop peddling POISON altogether by voluntarily removing this garbage from their shelves and selling healthy products. The future is a world where commercial tobacco is no longer widely available and certainly not normalized as it has been. Profit versus health? Not a question for me. Tobacco related disease is THE MOST preventable cause of death in the world. 8 million people a year are killed by this shameful industry. For centuries commercial manipulation turn sacred traditional tobacco of indigenous people to this highly toxic combination of carcinogenic chemicals that are designed to kill when used as intended. As for distance complaints by the retailers, it was already reduced dramatically. I’m sure if they had their way there would be no density requirement at all. This distance does not comport at all with the best practices of a TRL from the Public Health Law Center. We just heard from families affected by pediatric cancer. Thank you for taking this step to put your community’s health above profit.

Here is the entire segment (with extra parts at the beginning and end):