WBAL.com

By a vote of 8 to 1, the Prince George’s County Council has approved what anti-drug activists say may be the strictest ban on sale of single cigars in the United States.

The vote Tuesday was on a measure requiring cigars to be sold in packages of at least five.

Supporters say the ban is needed to discourage teenagers and even younger persons from buying cigars, hollowing-out the tobacco and replacing it with marijuana or other smoking weed. Experts say the restuffed cigars are called “blunts” and are commonplace in music videos, movies and other forms of entertainment aimed at the young.

A similar proposal to ban single cigar sales across Maryland died in this year’s General Assembly.

The Washington Post reports that the Maryland Association of Tobacco and Candy Distributors is threatening legal action against the new Prince George’s ban. A lobbyist for the association is quoted as saying that the county council overstepped its authority in regulating a legal tobacco product.

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The Prince George’s bill excludes stores that specialize in cigar sales, and the ban on single cigar sales would not apply to bars, restaurants, fraternal lodges and golf courses. Such places are sometimes age-restricted or specialize in more expensive cigars than the 80 cent to one dollar small cigars preferred by children and teens.

Kathleen Dachille, head of the tobacco regulation center at Maryland Law, tells the Post that Baltimore is considering new health regulations that would effectively restrict single cigar sales and that a law in D.C. goes after cigar products such as wrappers as drug paraphernalia.