Bars and lounges will be exempt from the restrictions, as well as private homes, college dorms, hotels and bed and breakfasts, private clubs, bowling alleys and even county jails.

The amended bill threw out the complicated system of exemptions for some bars and small restaurants in the CUSP proposal, instead exempting all bars, lounges and restaurants with fewer than 25 seats.

The measure empowers city officers and inspectors from the city's Licensing Commission and Health and Hospitals and Inspectional Services departments to enforce its provisions, and provides for stiff fines for vendors caught stealing tobacco to minors.

Politicking

Council member Anthony D. Galluccio led an effort to remove the requirement that all tobacco products be kept behind cash registers in locked display cases away from customer reach. The provision was intended to curb youth smoking, according to Dempsey.

But Galluccio argued that the provision contradicted another clause requiring that free-standing tobacco displays, which hold cigarettes, be kept within view of cashiers and within 10 feet of registers.

Galluccio also argued that moving cigarettes behind the counter was primarily intended to combat shoplifting, and said youth access to cigarettes can only be solved by strong law enforcement. He successfully amended the provision mandating behind-the-counter cigarettes, angering supporters of a crackdown on juvenile smoking.

"For a small store this is the issue between life and death," said Councillor Michael A. Sullivan, who said tobacco companies pay stores between $2,000 and $10,000 to maintain displays.

Council member Katherine Triantafillou disagreed, arguing that "profit margins" cannot override the health of the city's youth.

"Would we do this with marijuana? Would we do this with coke?" she asked. "If what we're doing as a matter of policy is countenancing these displays by tobacco companies, that's appalling."

"I was disgusted by Councillor Galluccio's amendment," Dempsey said following the votes. "This amendment was primarily about youth access to tobacco, and we were trying to [show] that tobacco is not as prevalent in society as people perceive it" by removing the displays.

The council passed Galluccio's amendment, 5-4, and defeated two amendments proposed by Duehay to restore the force of the original proposal, by the same margin. The vote split along party lines, with Independent councillors siding with the restaurateurs and Cambridge Civic Association members supporting CUSP.

"It's a timid step," Duehay said. "The city council should have gone much farther than they have done."

"This ordinance pales to what New York City's is now," agreed Councillor Kathleen L. Born. "It's astonishing that in Cambridge it has taken so long for us to fall in step with what appears to be a mainstream occurrence" to curb smoking nationwide.

Reactions