San Francisco supes uphold flavored tobacco ban

It was the dramatic high point of the board’s first meeting after the summer recess, during which the supervisors also passed laws to create an Office of Cannabis and to cap the number of marijuana dispensaries in Supervisor Ahsha Safai’s District 11 to three.

The board voted to keep its ban on selling e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, and fruit- and candy-tinctured tobacco products. The petition received 34,000 certified signatures — well over the 19,040 required to put the matter to voters. Since the supervisors refused to repeal their ordinance, it automatically goes to the June ballot.

Also on Tuesday, Safai introduced an ordinance, co-sponsored by Mayor Ed Lee, to set up an assistance fund for tenants forced to leave buildings because of hazardous conditions. He said it was prompted by a horrifying discovery Fire Department officials made in January, when they walked into the cramped basement of a laundry in the Excelsior and found about two dozen people living there. …

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