Tiburon to be first city in nation to ban all tobacco sales without exceptions

Twenty years after Tiburon sparked a nationwide movement to ban trans fats, the town is poised to become the first city in the nation to ban all tobacco sales without exemptions.

The new law will take effect Dec. 5 following the Town Council’s unanimous approval Oct. 15 and its anticipated support in a second, required vote to formally adopt the ordinance, scheduled for Nov. 5.

Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach enacted tobacco sales bans in 2021, but Beverly Hills allows hotels to sell to guests and Manhattan Beach includes a hardship exemption for businesses. Tiburon’s ordinance contains no such exceptions, though it does not apply to products intended to help people quit smoking.

“You can be proud of the fact that you’ve pushed the envelope even further, and you are truly the first to accomplish this complete ban without any exemptions,” Jeremiah Mock told councilmembers after the vote.

Mock, a University of California at San Francisco professor who researches human tobacco waste as a health anthropologist and garbologist, told the council that “the decisions you’re making are not only with regard to the health of people but also to the environment that you live in and that you’re custodians of as public servants.”

The ban positions Tiburon at the forefront of the Tobacco Endgame Movement, an American Heart Association initiative aimed at ending commercial tobacco and nicotine use. Recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show more than 57% of adults surveyed supported eliminating all tobacco product sales.

Youth advocates cite vaping rates

The Youth Advocacy Committee, a group of Marin County high-school students working to reduce teen smoking, vaping and nicotine use, brought the request to the council. The group, which is also working to ban tobacco sales in Ross, reached out to Mayor Holli Thier, who placed the ordinance on the agenda.

Youth advocates cited alarming local statistics. The California Healthy Kids Survey reported that 11% of ninth graders and 16% of 11th graders in the Tamalpais Union High School District — which includes Redwood High School serving the Tiburon Peninsula — used vaping products in 2023-2024, compared to statewide averages of 5% for freshmen and 7% for juniors.

Diana Garcia, a Novato High School junior and one of three Youth Advocacy Committee presenters, said banning tobacco would ensure retailers “don’t enter Tiburon now or in the future.”

Banning tobacco sales “will protect residents from the harm of tobacco and nicotine, promote a healthy community, raise awareness about the harms of nicotine, promote a healthy and clean environment and set a positive example for neighboring communities,” Garcia said.

The ordinance drew support from major health organizations. The San Francisco Marin Medical Society, representing 3,500 physicians, wrote that eliminating tobacco access would significantly reduce lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and Type-2 diabetes.

Action on Smoking & Health, the nation’s oldest anti-tobacco organization, also backed the measure. Policy Director Chris Bostic wrote that Tiburon could rekindle momentum after Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach enacted their bans.

The Prevention Policy Group noted Tiburon has pioneered health policies before. In 2004, Tiburon attorney Stephen Joseph started the “Project Tiburon” movement in honor of his late stepfather and persuaded all 18 of the town’s restaurants to voluntarily stop using trans fats, making Tiburon the nation’s first city to be declared “trans-fat free.” New York took notice and worked with Joseph to develop the first official trans-fat ban in 2006.

“So too will new generations of local leaders be inspired by your tobacco example,” wrote Lynn Silver, the Prevention Policy Group’s director and former assistant health commissioner in New York City.

Decades of tightening restrictions

Tiburon has steadily tightened tobacco restrictions since adopting its first anti-smoking ordinance in 1992. The town expanded smoking prohibitions in 2011 and added electronic cigarettes to the smoking definition in 2014.

In 2018, Tiburon became the last Marin city to extend its smoking and vaping ban to all attached multiunit residential complexes, including condominiums, townhouses and duplexes. The update prohibited smoking and vaping on patios, balconies, decks and outdoor common areas.

That same year, the town banned tobacco sales at pharmacies and required other businesses to obtain conditional-use permits to sell tobacco products. CVS/pharmacy, Tiburon’s only pharmacy, had already stopped selling tobacco in September 2014 under a corporate policy. A 2020 update banned flavored tobacco sales.

Marin County is pursuing its own tobacco ordinance that would establish minimum prices on cigarettes, cigars, little cigars, nicotine pouches and smoke-free tobacco while prohibiting discounts and promotional sales. The county measure would also ban electronic smoking devices and heated smoking systems.

Fourteen people spoke in favor of the ban during public comment. Redwood High School senior Cora Champommier, a member of the school’s Tobacco-Use Prevention Education program, said she witnessed vapes and nicotine pouches become popular among classmates.

“By maintaining Tiburon’s tobacco-free environment, Tiburon can reaffirm its commitment to protecting teens and young adults, advancing public health and fostering a community where residents and visitors alike can thrive,” said Champommier, a Corte Madera resident who grew up in Tiburon and attended Reed Union School District schools.

Tiburon resident and Main St. Mercantile owner Darla Fisher also supported the ban in a letter to the council. She wrote that she’s seen how easily teens get exposed to vaping and nicotine products as a parent, and the ban helps “preserve the family-friendly environment that has always made our town so special.”

“I’ve watched Tiburon grow and change over the years, but what has always remained constant is the sense of community — neighbors who care for one another, local businesses that reflect shared values and a downtown that feels safe and welcoming to families,” Fisher said. “Allowing the sale of products designed to hook young people on nicotine goes directly against that vision.”

Tiburon resident Elizabeth Fullerton also wrote in to support the ban, saying it would protect youths from tobacco marketing.

“Passing this ordinance is both timely and necessary,” Fullerton said. “It aligns with what appears to be community sentiment, it protects public health and it positions Tiburon as a forward-looking, health-focused town.”

Sole dissenter cites state laws

Jaime Rojas, a spokesperson for the National Association of Tobacco Retailers and the sole dissenting voice, disputed the need for the ordinance. He argued that no businesses sell tobacco products and existing state laws, from flavored-tobacco bans to age restrictions and licensing rules, “already protect residents and youth.”

A ban “tells future entrepreneurs that Tiburon regulates hypothetical issues instead of real ones,” Rojas said.

“Creating another local ban duplicates only existing laws and adds enforcement costs with no measurable health benefit,” Rojas said. “If Tiburon youth are using tobacco products, then it is definitely because they bought those products either online or outside the city limits, where there are no tobacco retail stores in Tiburon.”

Councilmembers expressed strong support for the ban.

“With local youth in Marin County vaping at twice the national average, it is critical that we take all efforts to reduce teen addiction,” Thier, who is running for state Assembly in 2026, said in an Oct. 17 text message. She added that by “banning all tobacco sales here in Tiburon, we are preventing youth from getting addicted and protecting our environment,” pointing out cigarette filters are made of plastic and are the one of the biggest sources of single-use plastic finding its way into rivers, bays and oceans.

Councilmember Alice Fredericks said she opposed smoking — her grandfather, mother, father and stepmother, all heavy smokers, died of cancer or heart attacks related to smoking — but wanted to ensure people could buy cessation products for medicinal use rather than products marketed as such. She based her concern on remarks from her husband, Neal Benowitz, a clinical pharmacologist at UCSF and one of the world’s leading nicotine-addiction researchers.

Councilmember Jack Ryan said local youth using tobacco products at higher rates than the state proved a point Rojas made about legislation’s limits, but “his conclusions were flawed.”

“I think there’s a lot of really compelling reasons to enact legislation to prevent tobacco sales,” Ryan said. “Even if you think, at first, they’ll be at the margin, I think it’s important to get everything moving in the right direction. And, ultimately, that’s the way to best serve the youth.” Note: This story was updated with comments from Thier, who responded after this article was first published online.

Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.