Bill would ban anyone born after 2005 from buying tobacco products
Photo | Courtesy of Sam Doran, State House News Service
Packs of cigarettes boasting "fresh menthol flavor" were on display at a Beacon Hill convenience store in 2019.
Massachusetts could become the first state to ban future generations from buying tobacco or nicotine products, a move that some say will finally end addiction to the harmful products, but others argue removes adult choices and freedom and would hurt small businesses.
The bill vetted Monday by the Public Health Committee is sponsored by Sen. Jason Lewis and Reps. Tommy Vitolo and Kate Lipper-Garabedian and would permanently block Bay Staters who are not yet old enough to buy tobacco from ever doing so legally here in the future.
The legislation (S 1568 / H 2562) would prohibit their sale permanently to anyone born on or after January 1, 2006. That group will turn 21 in 2027 — the legal age in Massachusetts when, under current law, they would be able to buy tobacco or nicotine. But it would remain illegal to them with the intention of phasing out the products without affecting older adults who already smoke cigarettes, vape or use nicotine pouches like Zyn.
"I know countless peers and friends who use nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes," Isabel Tashie, a rising senior at Needham High School, told the Joint Committee on Public Health at its hearing on Monday.
Tashie, who serves on the statewide leadership team for anti-tobacco organization The 84 Movement, said many of her friends began using nicotine products between ages 12 and 14.
"I had a friend who started using nicotine pouches her freshman year of high school," she said. "The packaging looks like a gum container, and because of its unassuming appearance, she thought it wouldn't have a large effect on her. Our sophomore year of high school, my friend started crying in one of our classes. She told me that it was because she'd already gone to the bathroom once in our class to use nicotine products, and now she was crying because the teacher wasn't going to let her go a second time."
The push for a statewide ban follows success for anti-tobacco activists locally. In 2020, Brookline became the first municipality in the country to ban the sale of nicotine products to individuals born after Jan. 1, 2000. Other towns have followed, including Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield and Winchester.
The New England Convenience Store & Energy Marketers Association noted a number of cities and towns have also rejected similar local proposals, including Worcester, Peabody, Milton and Westfield.
Several dozens people signed up to testify on the bill Monday, both in support and opposition. Committee chair Rep. Marjorie Decker said enough people signed up that it would take over two hours to get through all the testimony. She asked speakers to limit their testimony from three minutes to one, and the committee cut off the hearing at 6 p.m. when Decker announced the building was closing to the public, leaving some who had waited hours to speak without the chance to testify in person. Decker encouraged them to submit written testimony.
One of the last speakers, who testified at around 5:55 p.m. after waiting for hours, was a young man from Rowley who said the proposal "discriminates against an entire generation."
"It's hard to take seriously a committee that supports regulated marijuana use for individuals over the age of 21, yet pushes for a nicotine ban," said Alexander Chouvelon. "You champion bodily autonomy and harm reduction on one side and then turn around and criminalize nicotine. It's inconsistent, it's ideological, and it sends a mixed message."
He didn't identify himself with any special interest group, unlike some of the other speakers who testified on behalf of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Package Stores Association — both opposed to the proposal — or with anti-tobacco efforts, in support.
Emily Wieja, a Cambridge resident and self-identified "concerned citizen," said the bill proposes to "discriminate and infantalize certain adults based on their date of birth."
"If this is passed, it will create a dangerous precedent that will make it easier to remove adult choices in the future," she said.
Brookline resident Michael Chou called himself "just an ordinary citizen, sick of people dying from tobacco."
"This is not about personal freedom. If it were about that, millions of people above the age of 25 would choose to smoke. But we know that's not what happens. People start smoking when they're young in the context of social pressures. It's especially cruel and disrespectful to characterize smoking as a free choice. Tell that to the millions of people who are smokers, the vast majority of whom are trying to quit using what little is left of their free choice," Chou said.
That was a common argument among supporters of the bill.
"Addiction itself ends freedom of choice," said Katharine Silbaugh, a Boston University law professor specializing in adolescents and a self-identified cancer patient.
Retailers who sell tobacco products and came out in droves to oppose the bill. Alex Weatherall, owner of Sherborn Fuel and past president of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Market Association, called the proposal "illiberal" and "performative."
"I say illiberal because they propose to direct how adults live their lives. I say performative because, while they're sure to have no positive effect on public health, they do satisfy a desire of nannying policymakers to feel useful," Weatherall said.
Retailers said a ban in Massachusetts would just cause residents to spend their dollars at small businesses in neighboring states. Massachusetts borders five other states.
"I'm going to be blunt about this: It's not going to work," said Robert Mellon, executive director and general counsel at the Massachusetts Package Stores Association. Package stores sell tobacco and nicotine products. "It doesn't work because it's a Massachusetts-only ban, and we are surrounded by predator states who are selling to Massachusetts residents by the hour."
After a number of retailers who sell nicotine products said the policy would hurt their businesses, Ginny Chadwick, a tobacco control researcher and Somerville resident, said, "If their business model is dependent on addicting kids to a deadly product, they should probably rethink their business model."
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