Massachusetts cities commit to banning tobacco and vaping product sales

Brookline's ban on tobacco sales to anyone born this century is on the agenda of other cities and towns in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Malden residents will have the opportunity to vote this Wednesday, April 24, on an ordinance that would limit the sale of tobacco and vaping products to people born after 2003. The same proposal will be debated Thursday in Winchester.[1].

Brookline's "Generation Tobacco-Free" law was first adopted at a city council meeting on November 17, 2020. Before adopting this local law, Brookline consulted with then-Attorney General and now-Governor Maura Healey, who concluded that the local provision did not undermine state prerogatives in this area. However, the law was the subject of a legal challenge by two city retailers.[2] but the Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld the provision in March 2024.

A movement that must be heard throughout Massachusetts to be effective

Local governments in more than half a dozen metropolitan communities in Greater Boston have adopted or are considering similar bans. These commitments come just weeks after the Supreme Court upheld Brookline's law banning the sale of tobacco and e-cigarettes to anyone born on or after January 1, 2000.

The health boards of Wakefield, Stoneham, and Melrose have already approved their own versions of the ban. This ban is expected to take effect on March 1.^er January 2025 and would prohibit the sale of tobacco or vaping products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2004. In other words, it would be illegal to sell tobacco products and e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 21 when the regulations come into force.

Winchester and Malden will hold public consultations on their proposal in the coming days. Reading and Medford could follow next month, according to local health officials.

" This is the kind of issue that every municipality in Massachusetts needs to agree on, otherwise it's too easy to cross over and go to, say, Waltham, Needham, or Watertown to buy your cigarettes. " said Susan Albright, a city councilwoman in Newton, who helped develop a similar proposal being considered in the city of 87,000. We must make it a mass movement "Even though local regulations are multiplying now, it could be years before similar legislation is passed at the state level, said Maureen Buzby, regional tobacco control coordinator for seven communities, including Melrose, Wakefield and Stoneham.

A measure that is beginning to be taken into consideration around the world

New Zealand adopted a similar policy but abandoned it last year after a new coalition government, some of whose members are close to tobacco companies, opposed it. In the United Kingdom, a proposal to make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after January 1, 2009, passed its first phase of parliamentary approval last week.

Other countries have approved even more ambitious measures; two California cities—Manhattan Beach and Beverly Hills—for example, have banned the sale of all tobacco products, regardless of the customer's age. But for years, Brookline remained an outlier, in part because some cities were waiting for the Massachusetts Supreme Court to rule on the measure's compliance before committing.

Keywords: Massachusetts, tobacco-free generation, ban, youth, Boston, United States

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[1] Lance Reynolds, Massachusetts cities, towns consider following Brookline's tobacco sales ban, Boston Heralds, published April 23, 2024, accessed April 24, 2024

[2] Tobacco-free generation, Brookline: Massachusetts Supreme Court upholds ban on tobacco sales to people born after 2000, published March 12, 2024, accessed April 24, 2024