BELCHERTOWN — At its meeting on Oct. 9, The Board of Health took another step in its process to change town ordinances concerning the sale of tobacco products in the town.
The board plans to have one more meeting to finalize the changes and then will host a public hearing about them.
Lisa Steven-Goodnight, director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s Municipal Tobacco Control Technical Assistance Program, explained to the board members that Brookline was the first community in the world to adopt an effort to create a tobacco-free generation.
Brookline put forth a program that bans anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2000, from buying tobacco in the community. The bylaw was adopted in 2020 and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld it.
Belchertown is proposing the same ban only the date in question would be Jan. 1, 2004. If a resident was born on or after that date, they would be permanently banned from buying tobacco products in the town, no matter how old they become.
Steven-Goodnight said the measure would create “a nicotine-free generation.” She added that there are other Massachusetts communities including Wakefield, Malden and Medford now considering a similar action.
She called it “a very promising policy,” although she admitted there is no research yet about its efficacy.
Meredith O’Leary, the coordinator for the Pioneer Valley Tobacco Coalition, said Northampton is also looking into establishing a similar ordinance.
No one spoke against the ban although The New England Convenience Store & Energy Marketers Association (NECSEMA) did issue a press release opposing the ban, which read in part, “The retail community and NECSEMA, which represents thousands of convenience stores across New England, opposes the measure for several reasons, including:
- It haphazardly applies a discriminatory ban against the purchase of legal products by 21-plus adults, treating them differently from those born before them.
- Restricting the free choices of legal products to adults is fundamentally wrong.
- It creates and supports a dangerous illicit market.
- It does nothing to address under-age youth use of nicotine and tobacco products.
- Removing nicotine pouches from gas stations and convenience stores in Belchertown will create a substantial hardship on adult nicotine users. Oral nicotine pouches are considered less risky products than many other tobacco products, and consumers are adopting them to replace, in whole or in part, their use of these other products higher on that continuum of risk recognized by the FDA. Discouraging nicotine pouch use by removing them from most retailers frustrates this movement from higher risk to lower risk tobacco and nicotine products.”
The final notation in the organization’s statement concerns nicotine pouches, which the board would address by making them available to purchase only at businesses open to people 21 years of age and older, such as liquor stores.
Although Jeffrey Smith, a resident senior fellow, integrated harm reduction at R Street, which describes itself as “a leading think tank focused on solving complex public policy challenges through free markets and limited, effective government,” was attending the meeting remotely, he did not speak about the pouches although he has written a research paper claiming there is much disinformation about the product.
Steven-Goodnight said the pouches, which contain nicotine salts, is a fast-growing product. The pouch is placed between the lip and gum and releases a flavored nicotine. She added it is not an approved cessation device such as nicotine gums or patches and the nicotine amount can very from 2 to 4 milligrams of the drug in some pouches but also as much as 28 milligrams in others. “There is very little regulation,” she added.
O’Leary said the pouches are “extremely popular” and are “very cheap, cheaper than vaping.” She added that young people “don’t see any harm because its not going into the lungs.”
The discussion will continue at its next meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 6 at a place to be announced.
