December 12, 2008 – BOSTON–Boston officials approved some of the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the United States on Thursday, extinguishing cigar bars and hookah bars and ending the sales of tobacco in pharmacies and on college campuses.
The Boston Public Health Commission, however, decided to give the bars 10 years before they would have to close, doubling the original proposed grace period for the establishments. Even then, the bars could seek an extension for another 10 years.

Boston is the largest U.S. city, by far, to move to outlaw smoking bars, which have been exempt from the city’s four-year-old workplace smoking ban.