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The Multnomah County Commission released a draft ordinance Wednesday that, if passed, would outlaw cigar and cigarette trucks.
The county's new rules are intended more broadly to make tobacco retailers pay for licenses to sell any tobacco or tobacco-related products.
Oregon is one of the few states in the nation that does not require tobacco retailers to be licensed, and Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury pledged to move forward with tobacco retail licensing if the Oregon Legislature failed to adopt statewide licensing during the last session. (It failed.)
The ordinance would also prohibit mobile sales, so drunken revelers in Portland's Old Town would have to say goodbye to Roll'N Smokes, the food-cartlike tobacco truck that caters to social smokers who have bummed one too many American Spirit Blues from friends.
The ordinance would require a tobacco retail license for any addresses at which tobacco products—including e-cigarettes, blunts, mini-cigars, shisha, snuff, and pipe tobacco, among other products—are sold.
Recent public discussions have estimated the cost of such a license at between $350 and $600, according to the Portland Tribune.
Tobacco-cessation products—Nicorette, for instance—would be excluded from licensing requirements.
The move would be, in part, an attempt to curb illegal tobacco sales to minors, which is triple the national rate in Multnomah County. A study by the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium showed dramatic decreases in illegal sales to minors in 26 cities with strong licensing laws.
County commissioners will conduct a reading of the draft Nov. 5. They will read the draft again Nov. 12 with adoption possible that day, as well.
Willamette Week