Smoking City: SF Looks To Curb Tobacco Permits As Cigarette Sales Rise

Where fees didn't work, San Francisco will try cutting down on the number of tobacco permits to curb a rise in cigarette sales.

Smoking is up, not down, in the city, according to the San Francisco Examiner, which counts 12.5 million packs of cigarettes sold in the last fiscal year.

There is a 20-cent fee on packs of cigarettes sold in San Francisco, which translates into $2.5 million a year collected by the city, the newspaper reported, and 956 tobacco sales permits.

Cigarette butts are also a big source of litter in town, the newspaper reported -- particularly outside of bars and near bus stops.

Supervisor Eric Mar wants to place a cap on the number of permits allowed in select residential areas.

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