From: CSPNet.com
From cigarette vending machine bans to flavor prohibition
By Thomas A. Briant, NATO Executive Director
MINNEAPOLIS — The local regulatory movement against tobacco products began some 26 years ago in 1989 when the city council of White Bear Lake, Minn., became the first city in the country to ban the sale of cigarettes through vending machines. As the local regulatory effort spread across the country and more cigarette vending machines ended up either in dumps or as collector items in basement rec rooms, the focus switched in the mid-1990’s to restrictions on self-service displays, especially in retail stores that allowed minors to be present. These kind of restrictions fall into a broad category of how tobacco products are displayed or sold.