In 2023 and 2024, Youth Forward led efforts at the state and local levels to ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products. Through our work in local high schools, we learned that young people had easy access to highly intoxicating candy edibles, made with hemp, that have been sold in corner stores and vape shops throughout Sacramento and in many parts of the state. These products mimic cannabis edibles sold in legal dispensaries, but they are often sold to minors and many are even more potent than those sold in dispensaries. In the fall of 2023, we won two victories: the Sac County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance banning these products and Governor Newsom banned them at the state level. As part of our advocacy work with Sac County, we partnered with youth leaders at Breakthrough Collaborative who conducted a “secret shopper” investigation of local vape shops and found that many sell these products to minors. To see the presentation Breakthrough Collaborative leaders made to the Sac County Board of Supervisors on October 8th, 2024, please click HERE.
