The sale of flavored tobacco products will no longer be allowed in West Hollywood following a unanimous vote from the City Council that also banned the use of all tobacco coupons.
The ordinance bans the sale of any flavored tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco and electronic smoking devices. Menthol, a primary ingredient in many cigarette products, is among the outlawed flavors. Any coupons or discounts on regular tobacco products are also prohibited. Only shisha tobacco, the product smoked in hookahs, is still permitted.
“The sooner [tobacco companies] get you addicted, the longer they’re going to have a customer and the more profit they’re going to make off of you,” Mayor Lindsey Horvath said in an interview Thursday.
“What that also means is many more chronic health impacts, and perhaps not being aware or being exposed to education or information about the impacts of early tobacco use. We’re doing what we can to have both an education campaign but also restricting access to those products, which make becoming addicted that much easier.”
Read the full story at LATimes.com.