Massachusetts town set to ban sales of all tobacco products
The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal chewing tobacco and packs of Swisher Sweet cigars are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent's Country Store, but maybe not for much longer.
The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal chewing tobacco and packs of Swisher Sweet cigars are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent's Country Store, but maybe not for much longer. All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get their way.
Westminster, a sleepy town of 7,700 in the state of Massachusetts, has become an improbable battleground in America's tobacco wars.
Tomorrow, the Board of Health will hear public comment on a proposed regulation that could make Westminster the first municipality in the United States to ban sales of all tobacco products within town lines.
"To my knowledge, it would be the first in the nation to enact a total ban," said Thomas Carr, director of national policy at the American Lung Association. "We commend the town for doing it."
Town health agent Elizabeth Swedberg said a ban seemed like a sensible solution to a vexing problem.
"The tobacco companies are really promoting products to hook young people," she said, pointing to 69-cent (HK$5.30) bubblegum-flavoured cigars, electronic cigarettes and a new form of dissolvable smokeless tobacco that resembles Tic Tacs. "The board was getting frustrated trying to keep up with this."