By Miriam Raftery
March 15, 2014 (El Cajon) – By a 4-1 vote, El Cajon’s City Council voted to add electronic cigarettes to the city’s tobacco ordinance. The measure will also regulate hookahs. Only Mayor Bill Wells voted against the measure, calling it “government overreach.”
The proposed regulations will next go before the city’s planning commission, after which the Council will hold a public hearing.
“This is an issue that crosses party lines…It’s a health issue and it’s about protecting our children,” said Councilman Gary Kendrick, who introduced the measure amid growing evidence that electronic cigarette makers are targeting youths and that tobacco use against young people is up sharply.
“The Superintendent of Cajon Valley School District asked us to pass the strictest measure possible,” Kendrick said. “There was not a single person who spoke against it.”
Kendrick has said that having a smoking area in a restaurant is “like having a peeing area in a pool.”