Newton City Council prohibited the sale of tobacco products to people born on or after March 1, 2004, in its meeting on Tuesday.
Adults who are currently 21 or older will be allowed to continue buying the products, but anyone born after March 1, 2004, will never be permitted to buy tobacco or e-cigarettes in Newton, regardless of their age. The law is intended to create a “nicotine free generation”, according to Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller.
In a newsletter sent Sunday, Fuller said that she and Shin-Yi Lao, Newton’s commissioner of health and human services, believe the ordinance is an important tool in reducing the harm caused by tobacco products.
“There is no safe amount of nicotine,” Fuller wrote. “Nicotine is harmful at all ages. Nicotine is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States.”
Brookline became the first municipality in the state to pass a “generational ban” law related to tobacco in 2020, when it banned the sale of tobacco products and e-cigarettes to individuals born on or after Jan. 1, 2000.
Since the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld Brookline’s new bylaw amendment in March, several towns across Massachusetts have created similar laws, including Stoneham and Needham.
Nineteen councilors supported the motion to ban tobacco for younger people, one voted against it, and four abstained from the vote.
Ward 2 Councilor-at-Large Susan Albright said she supported the motion because tobacco brings death and disease.
“We’re not taking away a product that is a typical product that a consumer buys,” Albright said. “We’re taking away a product that kills people, kills when used as directed, and if it doesn’t kill, it also harms and causes other diseases.”
Ward 4 Councilor-at-Large Joshua Krintzman said one reason tobacco should be banned is that it is in no way beneficial.
“To me, [tobacco] is unlike cannabis.,” Krintzman said. “It is unlike alcohol … it is more like assault weapons. It is more like guns. It is more like asbestos. What we do in our society when we find products like that that have no beneficial use is we prohibit them, we get rid of them, we try to get them out of our society.”
Ward 8 Councilor Stephen Farrell, who voted against the ordinance, said it infringes upon free will.
“What this ordinance does is create a special class of adults over the age of 21 who will not be able to make a personal legal decision for themselves—one that any other adult can make—simply because of an arbitrary guideline, a contrived birth date,” Farrell said.
Farrell explained he would instead support an ordinance that supports public awareness programs, comprehensive elementary and secondary education programs, and legal actions prohibiting sale and use by minors.
“Let’s act to improve existing programs to dissuade minors from using tobacco-related products,” Farrell said.
Ward 2 Councilor David Micley explained that while the ban has good intentions, he finds it to be a governmental abuse of power.
“Our power to limit is not limitless,” Micley said. “Every time we establish a new rule, we have to think about the pros and cons and how it advances policy and how it lands with residents, and what I’ve heard from residents–and what I feel myself–is that this is local government taking our power too far.”
Ward 4 Councilor Randy Block likened the ban to the prohibition, questioning councilors on whether they would vote to adopt a similar generational ban on alcohol since it is also bad for one’s health.
“We can admire the advocates of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution for their idealism and for their progressive values,” Block said. “But it did not take long for a progressive with different priorities to lead the effort to repeal prohibition.”
But according to Ward 7 Councilor-at-Large Rebecca Grossman, reducing access to tobacco is a step in the right direction for Newton.
“The approach we’re taking is one of gradualism,” Grossman said. “The idea is that by making small policy changes, you can start shifting society into a better direction, shifting people’s personal behavior and choices into a better direction. The idea here is to reduce the ease of access.”
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