Promising Strategies to Remove Inexpensive Sweet Tobacco Products From Retail Stores

Abstract

To address public concerns about cigar use among young people, the City of Boston, Massachusetts, created, passed, and implemented its first cigar-packaging regulation in 2012 to reduce young people’s access to inexpensive flavored cigars. The regulation went into effect on January 31, 2012. It has produced promising results, as evidenced by increases in mean sale price, substantial decreases in the number of retailers selling single cigars, and reductions in disparities (by neighborhood, race, and income) in young people’s access to cigars in neighborhood retail stores. This brief article reviews the regulation and its effects.