On Tuesday, October 20, 2009, the Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC) and the Center for Tobacco Policy & Organizing (the Center) hosted a webinar on the new law that gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products. Speakers provided a summary of the provisions of the law and the lawsuit brought against it and detailed which tobacco control policies are affected by the law.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate products that contain tobacco. Not every provision in the 2009 FDA Law, however, applies to every kind of tobacco product. This fact sheet explains which restrictions in the 2009 FDA Law apply to which tobacco products.

You may also be interested in these other TALC products about the FDA:

A law synopsis from the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium written by Ian McLaughlin, Senior Staff Attorney at PHLP.

TALC publishes (and regularly updates) a booklet entitled “Tobacco Laws Affecting California,” a guide to all of the federal and state tobacco laws that affect California. It contains summaries of the state laws regulating secondhand smoke, the sale and marketing of tobacco products, tobacco taxation and licensing, and more.

Methamphetamine (meth) addiction is one of California’s top drug problems, ruining lives, generating crime and violence, and worsening other public health crises like HIV infection. TALC and the Center for Tobacco Policy and Organizing collaborated on a fact sheet describing how a tobacco retailer licensing ordinance can help reduce sales of drug paraphernalia related to meth use.

This spreadsheet, a companion piece to "The Cost of Enforcement and Guide for Tobacco Licensure Fees," is designed to help communities calculate the cost of launching and operating a local program to license tobacco retailers.

The American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation publishes a list, updated quarterly, of California communities with laws restricting youth access to tobacco. The list identifies communities with a law that restricts self-service tobacco displays or requires a tobacco retailer's license. 

In July 2008, TALC presented a webinar on our model ordinance checklists.

Many California communities are seeing an increase in the number of stores that sell tobacco
products. This memo addresses how public health can be improved when local governments
exercise their constitutional, statutory, and charter authority to regulate the uses of land within
their jurisdictions to control tobacco retailing.

This document provides answers to questions about how to appropriately license tobacco retailers and set up enforcement mechanisms in a given jurisdiction.