Newton County, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Newton County Code Sec. 12-149, adopted in Article VI of Chapter 12 in 2018, defines non-traditional tobacco paraphernalia as instruments such as bongs and hookah pipes designed to facilitate smoking, consuming, or ingesting tobacco leaf; the definition expressly excludes cigarette papers, wraps, traditional briar or meerschaum pipes, holders, and rolling machines. Any retailer offering such items for sale had to apply for a license no later than December 31, 2018, and must renew by December 31 of every year after that. The license is issued by the county Department of Development Services business license office, and the annual fee is not fixed in the Code itself; it is set, and can be changed, by resolution of the Board of Commissioners rather than by ordinance amendment.

Once licensed, a retailer must keep its entire inventory of non-traditional tobacco paraphernalia either in the same location where it sells tobacco products, or, if it sells no tobacco products at all, behind a counter and at least ten feet from any window, so the merchandise is not displayed for casual browsing or visible from the street. The Code applies this license requirement only to unincorporated Newton County; Covington, Oxford, Porterdale, Newborn, and Mansfield each set their own rules within their own limits. The county's e-cigarette rule sits in the adjoining Sec. 12-150, which bars vaping inside county government buildings but is a use restriction, not a retail license.