The Corte Madera Town Council has unanimously approved new tobacco and nicotine restrictions.

The ordinance prohibits tobacco retailers from accepting coupons or providing discounts on tobacco products; requires retailers to prominently display the cost of tobacco products and keep tobacco products in the manufacturer’s original packaging; bans electronic smoking devices, heated smoking devices and their components; and bans the sale of tobacco and nicotine pouches.

Fairfax passed a similar ordinance this month. Both Corte Madera and Fairfax follow a county ordinance in unincorporated areas that sets similar guidelines, but does not prohibit the sale of tobacco and nicotine pouches.

The Corte Madera council, which discussed the issue during its meeting on Tuesday, also directed staff to pursue a community engagement process for a potential full ban on tobacco and nicotine products. This type of ban was passed in Tiburon and Ross last year.

Mill Valley, which has five tobacco retailers, is drafting a ban on all tobacco and nicotine products except addiction treatments.

“The major challenge over the last decade in particular has been a proliferation of new products like electronic cigarettes and oral nicotine pouches,” said Dr. John Maa, a physician at the University of California-San Francisco. “Marin has really emerged as this oasis, this single county, that’s really been willing to step forward with all these new pieces of legislation to try to protect Marin residents.”

The Corte Madera ordinance was passed, in large part, to curtail teen use of nicotine and tobacco products. Some public commenters expressed opposition to the ordinance because of potential impact on tobacco retailers and adult consumers.

“We’re concerned that this ordinance places additional restrictions on retailers who already follow the law,” said Jaime Rojas, a representative of the National Association of Tobacco Retailers. “Small independent retailers operate on very thin margins and additional restrictions like these have real economic impacts to local stores.”

Rojas said adult users would just shop elsewhere, taking sales tax revenue away from the town.

Vice Mayor Fred Casissa said he had consulted with town staff to determine that the financial impact of a total ban would be minimal. Casissa also said he wants to skip the restriction ordinance in favor of an all-out ban.

“I don’t know why we’d hamstring ourselves and wait on doing anything at all while we wait for the full solution to be developed, which could be months,” said Councilmember Eli Beckman. “I think we need to do right by local youth and I think we need to stand up and protect our kids and pass this ordinance tonight.”