Oakland City Council approves smoking and vaping ban in certain areas on first reading

The Oakland City Council has passed an ordinance on first reading that would restrict smoking and vaping in certain public and private spaces.

The ordinance, which is being pushed by Councilmember Dan Kalb, would prohibit smoking and vaping both nicotine and cannabis products in outdoor bar patios. Another aspect of the ordinance would ban smoking in dwellings of apartment complexes and condominiums with an exception for smoking cannabis.    

It would also define vaping as a form of smoking, therefore banning vaping in all areas where smoking is already banned.

Councilmembers were mainly tasked with deciding whether to keep, modify or remove the exception of allowing cannabis smoking for multi-unit residential dwellings based on four different options.

“The first option allows cannabis smoking in residential dwelling units,” Kalb said. “The second option is to remove that exception and prohibit cannabis smoking in residential dwelling units. Option 3 is to only allow medical marijuana smoking in the residential renting units as the exception. Option 4 is to only allow the vaping of cannabis products, not smoking.”

Six councilmembers on Tuesday voted in favor of passing a version that includes an exemption for allowing the smoking cannabis in residential units of apartment buildings and condominiums. 

Two councilmembers, Treva Reid and Kevin Jenkins, abstained from voting. 

Before the council discussed the ordinance and prior to making their decision, over 40 people spoke during public comment for more than an hour. 

While all speakers approved of the ban of smoking both tobacco and cannabis on bar patios, they were split on whether to allow cannabis smoking in residential units. 

Health concerns vs accessibility

Proponents of removing the exemption for smoking cannabis in apartments argued that secondhand cannabis smoke is just as, if not more harmful as tobacco smoke to the environment and bystanders. 

“Cannabis smoke is not that different from tobacco smoke,” said Stanton Glantz at the meeting, a retired professor of medicine at University of California San Francisco who has produced research papers on the effects of vaping and secondhand smoke from tobacco as well as cannabis products. “It includes ultra fine particles, which are so small that they can go through walls. They’re circulated through the ventilation system. They cause adverse effects immediately on the cardiovascular system, blood vessels, and increases heart attack risk over time. The effects of secondhand cannabis smoke, secondhand vape smoke or other forms of inhaled cannabis all have about the same effect.” 

Meanwhile supporters of allowing cannabis smoking in apartments and condos said that a ban in multi-unit residences would mean that people who use cannabis for medical purposes would have almost no options for places to legally smoke it. 

“We won’t have a place to go to smoke if we can’t smoke in our own homes,” said Amber Senter, a disabled veteran and cannabis business owner. “Many of us can’t afford homes here, so we rent apartments. And if we can’t smoke in our own apartments and we can’t smoke outside, where are we supposed to consume?”

But those who want to ban cannabis smoking in apartments and condominiums said that neighbors of cannabis smokers should not have to be subject to ingesting secondhand smoke and there are alternative methods of using cannabis that don’t require smoking such as edible consumption. 

“The main issue here is that air drifts between units,” said Amaya Wooding at the meeting, project coordinator for LGBTQ Minus Tobacco, an organization that works to combat tobacco use among members of the LGBTQ+ community. “It’s basically impossible to prevent that. So the claim that smoking must be allowed in these locations for medical relief is literally to claim that other people must be forced to take your medicine.” 

Enforcement challenges

The majority of council members questioned the intricacies of how the ordinance would be enforced. 

Reid decided to abstain from voting after listening to the concerns of older adults in her district who may experience greater adverse impacts from breathing in secondhand cannabis smoke. 

“I hear from seniors who have challenges managing this issue,” Reid said. “They’ve not been able to have the level of support to address it. I do believe that we should have safe places for those who are impacted. Our homes should be safe for children, elders and families and those who have vulnerable health risks to be protected.”

But Kalb was eager to get some version of it passed, saying that this type of ordinance is already in effect in several cities throughout the state. However, having a cannabis exemption for multi-unit residential dwellings is not as common.

“There are 70 or 80 different jurisdictions in California that ban smoking in residential dwelling units, including many in the Bay Area,” Kalb said. “There are a small handful that also exempt cannabis, and we would be one of them. So this is not some new thing.”

Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Janani Ramachandran expressed support for keeping in the exemption for cannabis, citing the absence of safe consumption areas for smoking cannabis outside of the home. 

“I’m having a difficult time supporting legislation that would insert local government into people’s medical lives,” Fife said. “I cannot, in good conscience, legislate potentially having an individual face eviction because they have nowhere else to go to consume marijuana.”

The ordinance is scheduled to go to a final passage on December 3. 

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