Santa Cruz County, CA Tobacco & Vaping: Flavored Tobacco Bans (2026)

040(I) makes it a violation for any tobacco retailer or its agents or employees to sell, offer for sale, or possess with intent to sell any flavored tobacco product anywhere in the unincorporated county. 020(A) as any taste or aroma other than tobacco itself, expressly naming menthol, mint, wintergreen, fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb, or spice, so the ban reaches flavored vape cartridges and menthol cigarettes alike. Enforcement leans on rebuttable presumptions rather than lab testing: a retailer found with four or more flavored tobacco products, whether individual items or packages, is presumed to possess them with intent to sell, and a product is presumed flavored if the retailer or manufacturer has publicly claimed it imparts a flavor, used labeling or packaging suggesting a flavor, or otherwise marketed it to consumers as flavored.

040(J), but a code reviser's note attached to Ordinance 5461 delays enforcement of that specific filter ban until January 1, 2027, or until two additional jurisdictions in the county adopt a similar ordinance, whichever comes later; the flavored-tobacco ban in subsection (I) carries no such delay and is enforceable now. Compliance is monitored by the Health Services Agency or a Sheriff's Office Compliance Officer through routine inspections and youth decoy operations.