San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the sale of tobacco products in drugstores such as Walgreens, but exempted grocery stores or stores such as Safeway and Costco. Now, the city is looking to banning the sale of tobacco products in all businesses with a pharmacy, including drugstores and supermarkets.

James Franco is setting the record straight when it comes to rumors that he’s gay and enjoys smoking pot, two misconceptions that have developed from the characters he frequently portrays.”Everyone thinks I’m a stoner, and some people think I’m gay because I’ve played these gay roles,” the 32-year-old actor tellsAdvocate magazine. “That’s what people think, but it’s not true. I don’t smoke pot. I’m not gay. But on another level, there’s something in me that is able to play roles like that in a way that’s convincing.”

Although less harmful than cigarette smoking, smokeless tobacco products are not safe as a smoking cessation tool and carry a number of potentially fatal health risks, an American Heart Association scientific statement said.

The Department of Public Health (DPH) recently announced that the rate of cigarette smoking among Connecticut’s middle and high school students continues to decline, and that attitudes about smoking vary between smokers and non-smokers. The results are from a survey, the Youth Tobacco Component (YTC), on tobacco use among young people in grades 6 though 12.

New York state cleared one legal hurdle Tuesday in its efforts to begin taxing cigarettes sold on Indian reservations to non-Indian customers, but the dominant tribe in the tax-free cigarette market remained temporarily immune from the tax while pressing forward with another lawsuit.

Students make up the majority of buyers of cigarettes and other tobacco products at Thayer Street supermarket Tedeschi, according to cashiers Tim Hidalgo and Albert “Big Bertus” Saldana. Hidalgo and Saldana agreed that cigarette sales amount to about 100 packs per day, give or take 50. “Brown students definitely smoke a lot of cigarettes,” Hidalgo said. He added that most of their revenue comes from tobacco products, which also include cigars, chewing tobacco and rolling tobacco.

According to the makers of electronic cigarettes, they are new devices that allow users to inhale nicotine but not the toxins of tobacco cigarettes. Advocates hail e-cigarettes as a possible quit-smoking aid. But e-cigarettes have been criticized by the United States Food and Drug Administration as potentially toxic since they haven’t been tested in FDA-recognized scientific trials. Also of concern: there are no age restrictions on sales of these new nicotine-containing products.

To reduce tobacco use among young adults and protect the children of Ulster County from being targeted by advertisers within the tobacco industry, County Executive Michael Hein announced Tuesday that the county has formed strategic partnerships to combat tobacco usage by discouraging the promotion of these products in places where children their spend time.