FIGHTING BACK IN PLEASANT HILL
PLEASANT HILL YOUTH & TOBACCO
Help protect Pleasant Hill youth. Sign our petition.
Cheap Tobacco Products Are Sold In Pleasant Hill Stores
Many tobacco retailers now sell cigarillos for $1.99 or less. These products are cigarette-sized or larger and wrapped in tobacco leaf. They are the second most popular kind of tobacco after e-cigarettes among California youth and are often used with marijuana.
Photo: Donovan Seymour
Since 2023, neighboring Concord has required cigarettes and packs of cigars to sell for $10, and single cigars to sell for at least $5.
Pleasant Hill Students Know
Where to Go to Get Tobacco
40% of Mount Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) juniors say it’s easy to get cigarettes and 62% say the same about e-cigarettes.
In 2023, 13 Pleasant Hill stores were visited by underage decoys and 3 of the stores sold to them (23%). Surveys consistently find that many underage users get tobacco from stores, while very few buy devices or products online.
© California Department of Public Health
LGBTQ+ Youth In Pleasant Hill
Use Tobacco More
LGBTQ+ youth face more stress because of discrimination, which leads them to try tobacco earlier and at higher rates than their peers.
Queer MDUSD students are twice as likely to report feeling hopelessness or persistent sadness and twice as likely to report using tobacco or vaping.
Pleasant Hill Can Be Proactive
While Pleasant Hill does not allow sales of flavored tobacco products or vapes, there is currently no way to ensure that retailers are following the rules. Retailers are only required to have a city tobacco license after a violation is found.
Concord and hundreds of other California cities require all stores to maintain a license for an annual fee. The license can be suspended or revoked if retailers don’t comply with local law. The fee can be set to fully recover the cost of administration and compliance checks to the city.
© California Department of Public Health
The solution:
Tobacco Retail Licenses (TRLs) put teeth into tobacco laws by making sure retailers will lose their ability to sell tobacco if they sell to kids. TRLs can also stop the sale of e-cigarettes and flavors; raise prices to make them less affordable for teens; reduce the number of tobacco stores in minority areas and more.
Benicia, and 208 other Bay Area and California cities and counties have Tobacco Retail Licenses that have helped to protect youth from tobacco in their communities.