Beverly Hills Becomes First City to Ban Most Tobacco Sales

Let’s hope Jed Clampett doesn’t need to pick up a pack of Winstons anytime soon.

Beverly Hills has become the first U.S. city to end most tobacco sales, with the City Council phasing out the sale of everything from cigarettes and cigars to e-cigs and snuff by 2021.

It’s a wide-reaching ban. Gas and convenience stores, pharmacies and grocery stores will no longer be able to sell tobacco products. The city’s cigar lounges were granted an exception, however, as were hotels, where concierges can deliver cigarettes and other products to guests (though they cannot be smoked in the hotel itself).

Tobacco has been increasingly under the microscope of late. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration called out 15 retailers for selling products to minors, including Walgreens, Walmart and Kroger. At the same time, the FDA is moving ahead with efforts to ban flavored e-cigarettes, saying they are part of the reason there is a current “epidemic” of teen e-cig use.

Last month, Walmart announced it would no longer sell any tobacco product to anyone under 21.

Hawaii isn’t taking quite the drastic step Beverly Hills did, but one lawmaker there does have an alternate proposal. State representative Richard Creagan wants to raise the smoking age in the Aloha state to 100.