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Branson students urge Ross to ban tobacco sales; council agrees to place policy on a future agenda
Summary
A team from Branson School sked the Ross Town Council to amend Ross Municipal Code to ban the sale of tobacco and nicotine products, citing county survey data showing elevated youth vaping rates; the council directed staff to agendize a draft ordinance for a future meeting.
High school students from Branson School presented "Keeping Ross Tobacco Free" to the Ross Town Council on Thursday and asked the town to amend Ross ordinance No. 699 to formally prohibit retail sales of tobacco and nicotine products in Ross.
"Not about us without us," Kimberly De Leon, a Branson student and member of the Marin youth advocacy committee, said as the group introduced their presentation and data. The students cited the California Healthy Kids Survey and told the council that vaping rates in Marin were higher than the statewide average and that a substantial share of students reported vaping products were easy to obtain: "25 percent of Marin seventh graders said that it was easy to obtain vape products; 62 percent of ninth graders and 70 percent of eleventh graders said it was easy to obtain vape products," the presentation said.
The student presenters outlined local policy tools used by other California cities, including retailer density caps and proximity limits around schools, and asked the council to "amend Ross ordinance number 699" to prohibit tobacco sales in the town. They emphasized that Ross currently has no tobacco retailers but said there is no barrier to entry under current code.
John Ma, speaking by Zoom and introduced as the 2018 president of the San Francisco Marin Medical Society and a general surgeon at MarinHealth Medical Center, offered the society s a community supporter of the students' request: "I personally applaud the students' courage and intelligence to present this information before the council today," Ma said, and the society submitted a support letter, he said.
Council members thanked the students for their presentation and asked staff to bring a draft ordinance back for council consideration. Town Manager Krista Johnson said staff would work with the mayor and mayor pro tem on scheduling and noticing; at the meeting councilmembers moved to place the matter on a future agenda and acknowledged noticing and workload constraints.
What happens next: staff will review the students' draft ordinance and work with the mayor and mayor pro tem to schedule the item for a future council meeting, with standard public-notice requirements and likely time for formal review and environmental/ordinance drafting.
