Beverly Hills becomes first U.S. city to ban tobacco sales

UPI ^ | June 5, 2019 / 11:43 AM | by Clyde Hughes

[Red Badger]

June 5 (UPI) -- One of the wealthiest communities in California has become the first city in the United States to ban the sale of tobacco products, after councilors approved a new law that will take effect in 2021.

The city of Beverly Hills passed the new law Tuesday. While it doesn't bar smoking inside city limits, it prohibits any business from selling tobacco products beginning Jan. 21, 2021. The new ordinance exempts existing cigar lounges and will allow hotels to sell such products to guests.

Councilors said they will consider hardship exemptions for businesses that can prove the law will create an undue burden, and review the ban's impact on tourism in three years.

The new law is the latest effort by the city to improve the health of those who live and work there. It already has a program that provides a smoking cessation program free of charge to Beverly Hills residents and workers. The city said it's also collecting information about the effects of smoking and secondhand smoke in Beverly Hills city limits.

Beverly Hills already bans smoking in some public places.

Some retailers argue a ban on sales will simply shift them to neighboring jurisdictions like Los Angeles and West Hollywood. The National Association of Tobacco Outlets said businesses that sell tobacco may see their income fall as much as 45 percent.

[Red Badger]

That’s California................Florida has Weed Shops now. There’s one about a block from my home.............

[FreeReign]

Tobacco smoking, evil. Pot smoking, cool. Free needles to heroin users and magic mushrooms approved. I get it, sure.

I went to pick up my kid from college last month. The cigarette smokers who lived in the dorm were relegated to smoking their cigarettes outside in one little spot of shame.

Meanwhile, the entire dorm smelled like weed.

True story.

[Innovative]

Idiots.

So people will drive a couple of miles to be outside of BH city limits.

[RayChuang88]

I really doubt you’d see a tobacco shop inside the Beverly Hills city limits anyway—this isn’t the heyday of Hollywood!

[DannyTN]

Hope they got a good payoff. 11% of Californians smoke. That’s 11% that won’t be voting for those council members next election.

[Covenantor]

So people will drive a couple of miles to be outside of BH city limits.

We're talking Bevery Hills here...the wealthy there don't shop for tobacvo products nomore than they shop for food...the chauffeurs, maids, nannies, gardeners, etc do all that.

[TonytheTiger7777]

Arnold Schwartzennger has one and it will stay, hes a dirty Rat.

[dfwgator]

That’s where I want to be....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL_WvOly7mY

[Red Badger]

[bert]

Uber or one of the food delivery services will deliver to hollywood

[DoughtyOne]

With all the problems our society faces, this is the sort of thing that our government people focus on.

This is a mirror of what takes place in Sacramento.

We know droughts will come, but do we install desalinization plants? No. We wait and then complain.

We know the population is growing and we’ll need more energy. Do we build infrastructure for the next generation? No. We slam everyone for not turning their cells phones screens darker. We slam them for not setting their air conditioners on 80 during the summer and 60 in the winter.

Our freeways are bulging. We need more lanes. Do they work on that or do they take lanes and using them for empty car pool lanes, or that are used by couples and families.

If our parents and grandparents generation of leadership had acted like today’s leaders do, we’d have lanterns, wood fires, and no electricity. Add to it, no water as well.

Our present leaders are not up to the job. It’s grossly evident.

[LeonardFMason]

They don’t want the burgeoning HOMELESS population to get lung cancer.

[SkyDancer]

The feel goodie’s feel they did something to curb the horror of smoking while losing tax revenue.

[Dr. Sivana]

Councilors said they will consider hardship exemptions for businesses that can prove the law will create an undue burden, and review the ban's impact on tourism in three years.

I worked in the Hyatt Regency Hotel sundry shop in downtown Chicago decades ago, and half our sales were of cigarettes. (French smoked Tareytons, Blacks smoked Kools and Newports, Benson & Hedges was still a thing, and Japenese smoked Kent. Plus of course, Marlboros and Winstons, and the occasional southerner asking for a stale pack of Larks.) The job would be impossible if I had to ask for proof of being a "guest" of the hotel.

[bert]

As a rule of thumb, politicians almost never act. Polticians react.

There is almost certainly some powerful celeb that gave the mayor or councilman a strongly worded directive to stop tobacco sales.

[Red Badger]

The job would be impossible if I had to ask for proof of being a "guest" of the hotel.

Not nowadays, just ask for the Door Lock Passcard............

[Drew68]

Does anyone on the planet think that this will stop smoking in Beverly Hills?

Smoking in America today is almost exclusively a habit of the poor. Doubt it will impact too many residents of Beverly Hills. The few smoker holdouts can direct their housekeepers and nannies to pick up cartons outside of city limits.

[Scrambler Bob]

Mae West was asked if she smoked after sex.

[DoughtyOne]

Could be...

[Red Badger]

Mare: If it’s good enough, I smoke during.......................