Tobacco sales will be banned citywide
The Manhattan Beach City Council Tuesday approved a ban on all tobacco sales in the city. Vaping and flavored tobacco will be banned immediately, while other tobacco sales will be banned at a date yet to be determined, but almost certainly within two to three years. In an overflowing council chamber that included Manhattan Beach Unified School District leaders and students sharing horror stories of a “vaping epidemic” among students, public health advocates warning of runaway addiction, and a handful of small business owners who argued a ban would essentially drive them out of business, the council ultimately voted 4-1 for the harshest of the three possible bans staff had prepared for their consideration. “I think it’s important to take a stand,” said Mayor Nancy Hersman. Councilperson Steve Napolitano compared the ban to the city’s leadership role in passing other pioneering ordinances, including bans on plastic bags and polystyrene, and smoking in all public spaces and multi-family homes. “Somebody had to do something,” he said. “Somebody had to step up. Manhattan Beach stepped up.” On the same night that the LA County Board of Supervisors banned flavored tobacco products…
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