Photo: Jay Willett/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (State House News Service) — Tobacco and nicotine products would eventually become banned in Massachusetts, under a regulatory trajectory that a trio of lawmakers hope will become law next session.
Sen. Jason Lewis and Reps. Tommy Vitolo and Kate Lipper-Garabedian announced Monday they plan to file legislation in January that would permanently block Bay Staters who are not yet old enough to buy tobacco and nicotine products from ever doing so legally here in the future.
Their plan, embraced by public health advocates that have pursued similar initiatives at the local levels, marks a dramatic escalation of the Legislature's 2019 ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products, which was partially aimed at curbing youth uptake of the substances. At a press conference, the lawmakers acknowledged they expect to encounter opposition from the tobacco industry, and touted local and state polices that have made inroads at combatting tobacco and nicotine addiction.
The "Nicotine-Free Generation" (NFG) bill aims to prevent future generations from becoming addicted to the substances, while allowing anyone who is already 21 or older at the time of the law's passage to continue purchasing nicotine and tobacco products, which lead to heightened risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and other illnesses. The proposal, should it win approval, would gradually eliminate "all sales of nicotine and tobacco products," the lawmakers said.
People must be 21 and older to buy nicotine and tobacco products in Massachusetts.
Citizens for Adult Choice, which has condemned NFG initiatives across Massachusetts cities and towns, described the overarching policy as the "next step in an authoritarian movement that seeks to dictate many life choices of adults." The group's website, paid for by the New England Convenience Store & Energy Marketers Association, claims the policy creates a slippery slope that could pave the way for public health bans on alcohol, marijuana, sugary beverages, fast food and "placing a wager."
The bill would replace the existing age-based eligibility system by instituting a birth cutoff date for which Massachusetts residents could still lawfully buy nicotine and tobacco products. A spokesman for Lewis could not say what that cutoff date would be.
Vitolo said nicotine products are "so addictive that it would be unfair to take them away from long-time users."
"And, because they are so addictive, it would be unfair to allow those currently too young to lawfully purchase these products to ever do so," Vitolo said. "This legislation treats everyone fairly. Those who are not old enough now to obtain nicotine products will never be old enough to buy them in Massachusetts. Those who are old enough today will always be old enough."
Vitolo represents Brookline, which in 2021 became the first municipality in the country to ban the sale of nicotine products to individuals born after Jan. 1, 2000.
The Supreme Judicial Court upheld Brookline's ordinance despite pushback from some retailers, including convenience store owners. Similar policies have since been adopted in Concord, Malden, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield and Winchester, according to the lawmakers.
Vitolo and Lipper-Garabedian say they expect to encounter legal challenges should their bill become law.
"Presumably, there a lot of special interests and profit motivations that may lead to judicial action," Lipper-Garabedian said. "And at the same time, the SJC decision gives us a lot of confidence that this can be upheld."
Lewis called the bill the next step in a decades-long effort to reduce the harm caused by the addictive products. Massachusetts would be the first state in the country to enact such a restriction on tobacco and nicotine products, Lewis said.
"By gradually, effectively raising the age, it will make it more difficult for teenagers to get access to tobacco products. Now I acknowledge it's not going to make it impossible -- they will still find ways, but it will make it more difficult," Lewis said. "These products will be less available and accessible to teenagers, and so I believe that that will lead to a reduction in the usage of these products by young people, and eventually by people of all ages."
Meher Shahrawat, a Winchester High School senior who works with the Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition, said NFG "represents an end," as said policies such as flavor bans are not working to prevent high school students from using the products. The solution, she said, is eliminating nicotine "completely" for future generations.
"I think that NFG is efficient in the sense that it truly does call for a nicotine-free next generation, but it does so gradually, so that it is not an immediate detriment economically," Shahrawat said.
"The reality is that this policy is not a detriment to store owners and distributors at the current moment because this policy is strategic," she added. "It's based on birth year, and it'll take some time for convenience stores to lose their tobacco and nicotine sales. This allows them to adapt and to stay in business."
The New England Convenience Store & Energy Marketers Association has repeatedly rebuked other local "nicotine-free generation" measures, calling them a discriminatory ban for adults who would not be old enough to buy the products. The association says restricting the choices of legal products to some adults is "fundamentally wrong," warns the ban creates and supports a "dangerous illicit market," and fails to address under-age youth use and nicotine products.
Worcester earlier this year rejected a measure to phase out the sale of cigarettes and other nicotine products in the city, the Telegram & Gazette reported. The newspaper also published a column from Peter Brennan, executive director of the association, praising Worcester's action to "protect the rights of customers and small businesses."
"Worcester was correct to reject this governmental overreach, especially as access to gambling, combustible cannabis and alcohol is being expanded daily," Brennan wrote. "All these products — including nicotine and tobacco — are legal and belong where they currently are today: in licensed, regulated environments that only sell age-restricted products to adults. To single out tobacco and nicotine while removing barriers to access for these other harmful products is governmental hypocrisy at its worst."
After Massachusetts restricted the sale of flavored tobacco products in 2019, New York and New Jersey a year later banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. California later banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes, a measure that was challenged by a tobacco industry coalition but upheld by voters, according to Reuters.
Vitolo noted the Massachusetts flavor ban was filed and passed in the same session.
"We're hoping for a similar speediness by the Legislature," Vitolo said. "We're prepared to have 200 conversations, one with each member of the House and Senate, and work with our colleagues one at a time until we get there."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month said that tobacco product use among middle and high schoolers reached its lowest point in 25 years. Some 2.25 million middle and high school students reported using a tobacco product in 2024, compared to 2.8 million in 2023. Health officials attributed the decline to a major drop in e-cigarette use.
Beyond state and local laws, companies have taken major steps to tackle tobacco addiction.
Stop & Shop, the commonwealth's largest grocery store chain, stopped selling tobacco products over the summer as the company voiced its commitment to improving community health outcomes. CVS stopped selling cigarettes in 2014, becoming the first nationwide pharmacy to ban the products from its stores.
Written by Alison Kuznitz/SHNS
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