Massachusetts Lawmakers to Propose Phasing Out Nicotine Sales
BOSTON — Three Massachusetts lawmakers are hoping the state makes history again when it comes to tobacco.
State Reps. Tommy Vitolo (D-15th Norfolk) and Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-32nd Middlesex) will join with State Sen. Jason Lewis (D-5th Middlesex) to file the Nicotine Free Generation Bill in 2025.
The bill would ban the sale of tobacco or nicotine products to consumers born after a specific date. The bill, if enacted, would replace the state's current Tobacco 21 rule, reported MassLive.com.
The three lawmakers contend the legislation would protect future generations from nicotine addiction while ensuring older people could still have the right to smoke, the report added.
"This legislation treats everyone fairly," Vitolo said at the Massachusetts State House on Nov. 25. "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."
The statewide bill follows efforts in numerous Massachusetts municipalities to enact similar legislation. Brookline officials were the first in the state to implement a generational tobacco ban in 2021. The ban, which local officials approved in 2020, prohibited tobacco sales to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2000.
The legislation faced opposition and ultimately found its way to the Massachusetts State Supreme Court, which upheld the legislation in March.
Brookline is part of Vitolo's district.
Since that decision, several other Massachusetts towns have followed Brookline's lead. In response, the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association launched Citizens for Adult Choice, a grassroots campaign to oppose "generational" bans on tobacco and nicotine products.
[Read more: Generational Tobacco Bans Loom as Next Backbar Threat]
The goal of Citizens for Adult Choice is to educate lawmakers and raise public awareness about the implications of bans on the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to adults, especially as local boards of health are following suit in other communities, enacting bylaws that bar certain adults from purchasing legal products in their hometowns, as Convenience Store News previously reported.
Four years ago, Massachusetts made history when it became the first in the country to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products — including menthol — statewide. Then-Governor Charlie Baker signed the ban into law in November 2019 and it went into effect on June 1, 2020.