You’ll be able to’t smoke ‘em if you don’t acquired ‘em.
That’s the thought behind a pair of payments earlier than the state Legislature which might ban tobacco gross sales to folks born after 2006.
The proposal went earlier than a listening to of the Joint Committee on Public Health on Monday.
If enacted, it will be the primary such statewide regulation within the nation, although not the primary implementation of the thought altogether. Residents of greater than a dozen-and-a-half commonwealth communities already stay below related bans by native ordinances.
Advocates say a statewide ban for folks of a sure age would signify an finish to tobacco use for the following generations of Bay State residents, due to this fact saving them and the state from the prices related to the dangerous results of smoking or different tobacco use.
Dr. Henry Dorkin, a Newton resident who the Massachusetts Medical Society describes as a “renowned pediatric pulmonologist and researcher,” instructed the committee that he was endorsing the payments on behalf of the 25,000 medical professions represented by the MMS.
“To be clear: this is a public health measure no different than keeping immunizations up to date. In addition to patient harm, the cost of to the taxpayers of Massachusetts for medical care of nicotine delivery system induced diseases is high,” Dorkin stated.
The information reveals that it prices about $4.74 billion yearly to deal with Bay State residents’ tobacco-related well being considerations, based on Dorkin.
“Your medical society believes that this is a protective health measure, please protect our children,” he urged lawmakers.
However not everyone seems to be in favor of the thought.
Gasoline station homeowners, liquor retailer homeowners and the commerce teams that signify them spoke out towards the ban, noting parallels between the state’s proposal and the federal authorities’s try on the prohibition of alcohol within the early twentieth century.
Robert Mellion, talking on behalf of the Massachusetts Package deal Shops Affiliation, stated that tobacco ban “is not going to work” in the identical method that prohibition couldn’t make folks cease consuming and different bans have did not curtail habits.
“The flavored tobacco ban doesn’t work,” he stated. “It doesn’t work because it’s a Massachusetts only ban and we are surrounded by predator states who are selling to Massachusetts residents by the hour. That’s the truth, we can deny it, but it’s the absolute truth.”
“These bans don’t work because prohibition didn’t work,” he added.
This text was corrected to indicate the right lower off date for tobacco gross sales.
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