Minn. soda shop rebuked for stocking candy smokes

Candy cigarettes yanked from shelves by St. Paul, Minn. store / WCCO-TV/CBS

Updated 2 a.m. EST Dec. 27

ST. PAUL, Minn. Owners of an old-school soda shop in St. Paul, Minn., are being warned to kick the habit and stop stocking novelty candy cigarettes.

City inspectors threatened a misdemeanor citation and $500 fine if Lynden's soda fountain is caught selling the fake smokes again. The Star Tribune reported Wednesday that the offering violated an ordinance barring the sale of candy smokes and cartoon character lighters.

A city spokesman says the warning came after inspectors received and looked into a complaint about the presence of the tobacco-themed products. The ordinance was enacted to discourage youngsters from picking up a real smoking habit.

Shop owner Tobi Lynden says the white candy sticks with the red tips were her best-selling candy item but she pulled them to avoid running afoul of the ordinance.

She told CBS Minneapolis station WCCO word that such sales were illegal came as a surprise.

She opened the shop last April, and says the candy cigarettes were mostly bought by adults.

"We're a tiny little soda fountain shop that specializes in vintage candies and vintage sodas," she told the station. "We never had any issues with it. People were always happy to see them."

Inspectors removed the candy cigarettes, the Big League Chew and the bubble gum cigars people buy when someone has a baby, WCCO reports.

[Twinkleberry]

Absurd.

[RKMctrog007]

Leave the boarders more or less un attended, allow illegal's to run freely across people land with drugs, guns and other things but let one person sell a candy cigarette.
Our tax dollars at work people.
Same joke president, same joke government but just more of it.
Like a cancer it will get bigger and bigger, consuming more resources and controlling more and more of freedom.
You people wanted him, you got him and everything that goes with him.
Welcome to the Obamanation.

[jdbynum3]

Today the candy cigarettes, tomorrow we all have to wear masks over our face to keep from offending someone. I feel for the kids growing up in this superficial world with a hand full of weirdo's running it and making new rules as they go along.

[peacefulperson]

I loved candy cigarettes as a kid, but I never took up smoking. This is a silly law.

[beachshoe]

Another fine example of government stupidity! Let parents do their JOB.

[AMCcarhobbyman]

glad we're so concerned about 'candy' cigarettes WHEN SEMI AUTOMATIC RIFLES, EXTENDED CLIPS have yet to be re-considered for GUN CONTROL. Candy cigarettes, i had them as a 'kid' and never thought twice about growing up and smoking !

[peacefulperson]

We also sell toy guns EVERYWHERE, even at gas stations. It's okay to play killer, but wrong to eat candy shaped like cigarettes.

[rayinmn]

Everyone here knows candy cigarettes are a gateway confection leading to a lifetime of addiction to hard-core substances like Milky Ways and Hersheys.

[Sportbikerider]

Yup, real cigarettes would be legal in this same store, but candy ones aren't. Like candy cigarettes are actually going to be the single trigger to make a kid start smoking.
But that is what the thought process of the legal system of this country has become. A bunch of knee jerk reactions toward imaginary problems, in order to focus the public eye away from their lack of competence toward real problems (like banning the production of tobacco products in general).

[1notrub11]

Nicely said. Left hand not only doesn't know what the right hand is doing, but doesn't care either.

[arccc2]

And no one has a problem with legalizing marijuana?

[rwsmith29456]

I don't think smoking is good but candy cigarettes are against the law???????

[1notrub11]

Only in Minnesota? Out here on the "left" coast, there are any number of nostalgia shops selling these items. Funny, no one here seems to be overly concerned. Nonetheless, Arc has a point: legalizing smoking MJ is ok, in the face of this? Lol