I learned a LOT at the Tobacco End Game Summit in Washington DC last week. On the verge of tears, I found “my people” in large numbers like I’ve never seen before from many countries and many states. I’ve had to become pretty expert in smokeless cannabis, commercial tobacco, nicotine, and many other nuances to be a better activist to save as many lives as I can with the help of those who are awake enough to pay attention to this continuing nightmare of death and destruction everywhere we turn still. If anyone is interested in hearing more about the INHERENT racism and other historical truths that have brought us to where we are today, please reach out. I’ll privately send you some of the talking points I learned that will hopefully resonate with anyone who cares about health equity. One point that really hit home also was that it’s the government’s JOB to protect us and our health, so why are they doing such a poor job of that after centuries of devastation from and exploitation with this bastardized product?

While my decision to vote for the Democratic ticket is not in doubt, I’m GRAVELY disappointed in this terrible decision that the Biden administration has made by kowtowing to the poison peddlers also known as Big Tobacco who have targeted Black Lives (disproportionately) with these flavored products used to mask the harshness of this highly addictive drug that has been marketed to people of color for decades since their lives matter even less to Tobacco Fat Cats than the rest of us human biological experiments. I’m proud that at least California had the sense to ban menthol, but Big Tobacco was at the ready to immediately start issuing identically marketed “non-menthol” products to continue poisoning people who smoke with their commercial tobacco without missing a beat. Anyone who supports BLM should know that far more Black people are killed by this product when used as intended than any other cause, and 8 million people are killed a year by this product worldwide, including 400,000 in the United States alone, making it THE MOST preventable cause of death. It’s the least regulated product in the world and we are still tolerating it for the profit of a few. There are far more of us who should be up in arms that those profiting. Where is the OUTRAGE?!

At least this article correctly points out that Al Sharpton is fighting to keep menthol cigarettes available. There is HARD PROOF he receives tobacco underwriting if you look at the fine print of his speaking tours. He’s literally receiving payola and blood money to kill Black people, so if you didn’t have a reason to dislike this fake progressive in the past, now you do.

Trying to enjoy yet another sci-fi series (3 Body Problem) and there is CONSTANT smoking in the 2024 scenes. How many tobacco executives produced this? It’s disgusting, distracting, unrealistic and of course like in the Avatar movie, these are PhD’s smoking? What does that tell us? There’s nothing redeemable or necessary about these characters smoking of course. It’s all product placement. Tobacco truthteller organizations have noticed a huge uptick in smoking in movies and shows. It’s intentionally put in there as it always has been by one industry trying to sell poison. We need to make this outrage public. It was very easy to find an article on this: https://mashable.com/article/3-body-problem-smoking

There was a short Smoking Ordinance Workshop for Retailer “education.” It was presented by City Attorney’s Office of the City of Vallejo on the forthcoming Tobacco Retail License (“TRL”).

It’s important to me to document the activism being done in fighting for tobacco control in my city. This is a video and presentation intended for tobacco retailers in Vallejo about the forthcoming TRL our coalition has been fighting for. For the record no tobacco retailers showed up (there are well over 100 in our city of 125,000. There were two callers on Zoom, but I believe they were both members of our coalition.

At the end of this presentation, you will hear me ask a question about the criminal enforcement portion of this proposed TRL. For the record, I object to the criminalization of clerks in these situations and intend to make that point to City Council when this is first read, among other things where I feel the TRL falls short. I also feel strongly that the city MUST mandate at least one yearly check for all tobacco retailers for this ordinance to have any teeth, regardless of their possibly having to get creative to hire a non-profit organization or someone to assist with it if the staffing is inadequate in certain years. Furthermore, I believe a yearly report of what was and what was not done must be presented publicly to City Council so that there is accountability regardless of where this ordinance goes.

Here is the slide deck:

We had a hybrid meeting in Fairfield, California the day I moved into my rental (so I was exhausted), but this was important for me to attend in person. My introduction of the keynote speakers starts at 00:21:45. I was happy to have a hand in suggesting that we do this as a “End Game” theme. The awards are given at 2:29:00.

These are the lovely awards I got:

This e-card from fellow tobacco control activists really blew me away with its sweetness. It’s certainly nice to get such warm kudos for something one loves doing in otherwise dark times in one’s life. I’m so lucky to have found these volunteering opportunities here in the Bay Area and Solano County given that fighting Big Tobacco has been a passion of mine for decades.

I’m returning to my old stomping grounds on Tuesday, December 12, to speak about a timely Tobacco Retail License update for that city. My alma mater, James Logan High School is there (the only high school in town still), so many formidable years of my life were shaped by Union City, where I also lived.

Cumulatively I also lived in the adjacent cities of Hayward and Fremont for decades. The goal is to thwart Big Tobacco from continuing to sell poison to youth illegally.

Even if one child is spared the addiction of nicotine addiction for his or her life, this journey to the East Bay will be worthwhile.

Unless one’s looking for it, one cannot imagine what branding is being used to market to kids, becoming environmental waste clogging our waterways, manufactured with cheap metals, plastics, battery acid, and other toxic, carcinogenic, leaking substances, including containers that will take thousands of years to decompose. Even if one child is spared the addiction of nicotine addiction for his or her life, this journey to the East Bay will be worthwhile.

After the excellent presentation from youth activists, I joined a subsequent panel discussion, which included:

• A few of the high school students
• Benicia school principals, administrators
• Trustees of the Benicia Unified School District
• Representatives from Solano County of Education (SCOE)
• Tobacco Free Solano (TFS) colleagues with Vibesolano/Solano County Department of Health

We addressed some successes and some warnings of the future with vaping among youth, particularly in Solano County.

I’m actually pleased with how it turned out even though I always get emotional talking about my dad when I start these things.

My friend and colleague Amaya’s slideshow from LGBTQ Minus Tobacco was extremely helpful for this presentation. The previous speaker had talked about second and third-hand smoke, so it was a great segue to go into all kinds of passive smoke, including fourth-hand.

This organization I spoke at is about clean air both indoors and outdoors, so it was a really good fit and the timing was right with a room full of activists, which coincidentally had my activist friend Adjoa in attedance. With her I did store surveys in January.

The genesis for the invitation was when I realized my kayak club buddy was a long-time Vallejo activist. Ken Szutu is highly honored for his environmental work and very graciously extended the invitation.

Kudos to my husband for taking the video too!