Ortiz, who represents a portion of East San José, told KQED he is “pro-business,” and expects any such moratorium wouldn’t need to be in place for more than a year, while the city works to formulate new regulations and programs around how and where tobacco or smoke shops are allowed to open.
“There’s not a lack of smoke shops on the East Side or throughout the city of San José,” Ortiz said. “You’re advertising and selling products that will result in health problems to our community, and you’re making money off that. And so we need to have leaders that are willing to stand up to greed and advocate for the health outcomes of our community.”
The rules committee asked city staff Wednesday to create an estimate of how much work it would take to craft such a moratorium and other policies to control smoke shops, which the committee will consider on June 11. At that meeting, the committee could also make more specific policy recommendations regarding the moratorium to be reviewed later by the full city council.
Darcie Green, executive director of health nonprofit Latinas Contra Cancer, was on the steering committee for the county’s report, which she said affirmed much of what Latinos in East San José already knew anecdotally about health, education and opportunities for communities of color and immigrants.
She said the call for the moratorium isn’t just about opposing smoke shops, but advocating in favor of healthier environments for everyone.
“This moratorium gives us the breathing room to reimagine East San José, not as a place saturated with harm, but as a model of health, justice and care,” she said Wednesday at City Hall.
“We deserve to regularly assess the health and quality of life of places where we live, work and play, and to reclaim the right to design our surroundings based on what we know, what we value, and what we envision for our own future,” Green added.
The city already has regulations in place for where cannabis dispensaries can operate and how many of them are allowed in a given area — rules which the council softened in 2023. San José also requires retailers to obtain a retail license from the city to sell tobacco products and bans the sale of flavored tobacco and vapes.
But some businesses, Ortiz contended, set up as “smoke shops” that don’t sell tobacco, and therefore don’t need a license.
“And they’re not necessarily selling tobacco, but they’re selling paraphernalia. And then they’re sending cannabis and mushrooms under the table,” Ortiz said, adding that these loopholes circumvent city efforts to reduce clustering of such shops and to combat illegal sales of drugs.
“So we need to make sure that there is an analysis by city staff and then a response through policy,” Ortiz said.
The Latino Health Assessment also shows that the community is disproportionately hindered by violence, access to healthcare, social determinants of health such as lower incomes, housing stability and faces increased mental health challenges and systematic barriers, disproportionately hinders the community when compared to the general population.
