A new Dallas ordinance will ban “electronic smoking devices” in areas across the city. Elected officials and advocates of the policy said the move will benefit public health.
The new policy approved by the council during Wednesday’s meeting created a category for vapes. That includes e-cigarettes and vape pens.
John Palmer is a local board member of the American Lung Association. He said research shows being employed in a workplace where smoking is banned, is linked to an increase in the success rate of people trying to quit smoking.
“Smoke-free indoor air laws are proven policy to reduce tobacco use and the subsequent follow-on effects of smoking,” Palmer told the council. “By simply asking tobacco users to step outside, we protect business employees and their patrons from dangerous second-hand smoke.”
The council’s new policy also includes a ban on dab rigs — water pipes usually used to smoke marijuana extracts and oils.
And it changed the definition of “smoke or smoking.” The new policy includes devices used to smoke tobacco or “plant products.”
“…Whether natural or synthetic, including marijuana or cannabis in any manner or in any form,” the ordinance reads.
Areas where smoking is banned include indoors or enclosed areas of the city, within 15 feet of a building entrance, on park property and any area designated nonsmoking.
Annette Addo-Yobo is the current “Miss Texas” winner and is a partner of the American Heart Association. She told the council she was advocating for the vaping ban because of her brother, who is on the autism spectrum.
“Individuals, particularly adults, on the autism spectrum have a 47% increased risk of developing cardiometabolic disease. They also have a 57% higher chance of having a stroke or heart disease,” Addo-Yobo said. “For me, this ordinance is personal.”
The city’s Environmental Commission worked on the ordinance before council’s final vote. But the addition of marijuana and cannabis into the smoking prohibition is new, as of a mid-September council briefing.
A city spokesperson confirmed to KERA “the prohibition did not exist prior to this amendment.”
“The State of Texas, of course, already generally prohibits the smoking of marijuana,” the spokesperson added.
Council’s passage of the policy comes after Dallas voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition R. That ballot measure decriminalized up to four ounces of marijuana in the city and put new limits on when police officers can make arrests for the substance.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua was one of a handful of elected officials to publicly support the proposition leading up to election day.
“This is only regulating where these items can be used, not prohibiting them all together,” Bazaldua said about the ordinance in a text to KERA. “I don’t see this passage conflicting with [Proposition] R.”
Council Member Chad West, who represents District 1, also advocated for the passage of the ballot measure. He told KERA the new ordinance is focused on public health.
“It makes sense to treat marijuana the same as tobacco in that regard,” West said in a text. “Prop R was about protecting Dallasites from criminal citations for having marijuana in their pocket or glove compartment rather than creating a free reign to smoke wherever, whenever.”
Despite the overwhelming support for the new marijuana policy on election night, it didn’t take long for the city to be hit with legal action.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Dallas over the proposition in late November. Paxton said at the time that “cities cannot pick and choose which state laws they follow.”
H/T: www.keranews.org
