A Massachusetts town might become the first in the nation to ban all tobacco sales, according to the Boston Globe.
Westminster, Mass. is a town of 7,765 located northwest of Boston. The city’s website describes the community as “a small New England village.”
The Westminster Board of Health has recently issued a proposal that would prohibit the sale of any products that contain tobacco or nicotine, such as cigarettes, chewing tobacco and e-cigarettes within the village.
The use of tobacco in workplaces and the sale of tobacco to minors are already illegal in Massachusetts, and many towns prohibit smoking in public areas. The Westminster proposal would be the first to ban sales to otherwise legal customers.
Local business owners are concerned about the impact the ban would have on their business, and they are petitioning the board to block the proposal.
“Where do you draw the line, a candy ban because it causes diabetes? Are we going to ban bacon because it causes [high] cholesterol? It seems like a slippery slope,” Brian Vincent, the owner of Vincent’s Country Store, told the Boston Globe.
Vincent told the Sentinel and Enterprise that tobacco sales constitute about 5-6 percent of his sales, and that a ban would “cripple” his business.
The board of health argues that the ban would limit tobacco use in the community.
Westminster health agent Elizabeth Swedberg told the Globe that the board has grown “increasingly frustrated” by tobacco companies’ “slick marketing:”
“This doesn’t seem right, that we are permitting products that, if used as directed, 50 percent of people die,” Swedberg said.
“This sends a clear message to residents that this is a bad product,” D.J. Wilson, the director of Westminster’s tobacco control program, told the Globe.
Some business owners, such as Michael Fratturelli of Westminster Liquors, expressed concern that Westminster residents will simply go elsewhere for their tobacco, driving business out of town.
“Nobody is going to stop smoking because this town decided to ban cigarettes,” Fratturelli told the Globe. “Businesses won’t want to come to this town anymore, and the value of our businesses will go down.”
“This isn’t going to make people in town say, ‘I can’t buy cigarettes, so I’m going to quit,'” Vincent told the Sentinel and Enterprise. “It’s just going to drive business out of town.”
