San Jose's 2018 flavored tobacco sales ban under SJMC 6.86 prohibits menthol, fruit, candy, and mint flavors in tobacco and vape products citywide, predating California's statewide SB-793 ban now in effect.
San Jose adopted a comprehensive flavored tobacco sales ban in 2018, codified in SJMC Chapter 6.86, prohibiting retailers from selling any tobacco or vape product with a characterizing flavor other than tobacco. The ban covers menthol, mint, wintergreen, fruit, candy, dessert, and alcohol flavors, and applies to cigarettes, cigars, vape liquids, pods, dissolvables, and smokeless tobacco. California's SB-793 (2020), upheld by voters in 2022 via Proposition 31, created statewide alignment, but San Jose's local rule preceded it and remains the operative enforcement mechanism through Tobacco Retail License inspections. Hookah lounges and certain premium cigars receive narrow exceptions.
Selling banned flavored tobacco brings escalating administrative fines, suspension of the city Tobacco Retail License after repeat offenses, and potential permanent revocation, with separate state penalties under SB-793 enforced concurrently.
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San Jose, CA
San Jose Municipal Code Chapter 6.86 imposes one of California's most rigorous tobacco retail licensing schemes, requiring annual permits, density caps, scho...
San Jose, CA
Federal Tobacco 21 law and California SB-793 set a hard 21-year-old minimum for tobacco and vape sales in San Jose, with no exceptions for military or grandf...
San Jose, CA
San Jose smoke shops, vape stores, and hookah lounges must hold a Tobacco Retail License under SJMC 6.86, comply with the flavor ban, and meet Title 20 zonin...
See how San Jose's flavored tobacco bans rules stack up against other locations.
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