Local shops in Westminster\u2013 and local smokers \u2013 oppose a total prohibition.<\/p>\n
The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent\u2019s Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get their way.<\/p>\n
This sleepy central Massachusetts town of 7,700 has become an improbable battleground in America\u2019s tobacco wars. On Wednesday, 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.<\/p>\n
Local officials are contemplating what could be a first: a blanket ban on all forms of tobacco and e-cigarettes, leaving some shop owners fuming. \u201cTo my knowledge, it would be the first in the nation to enact a total ban,\u201d said ThomasCarr, director of national policy at the American Lung Association. \u201cWe commend the town for doing it.\u201dTown health agent Elizabeth Swedberg said a ban seemed like a sensible solution to a vexing problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tobacco companies are really promoting products to hook young people,\u201d she said, pointing to 69-cent bubblegum-flavored cigars, electronic cigarettes and a new form of dissolvable smokeless tobacco that resembles Tic Tac candies. \u201cThe board was getting frustrated trying to keep up with this.\u201d\u00a0 Citing a report from the U.S. surgeon general, Swedberg said that if tobacco use continues unabated, 5.6 million American children who are younger than 18 today will die prematurely because of smoking. Change, she said, \u201chas to start somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Vincent would rather it not start with his family-owned grocery on Main Street. Tobacco products, he said, make up more than 5 percent of sales. A quarter of his customers buy tobacco, Vincent said, and while they\u2019re there, they often pick up a gallon of milk or one of the fresh-baked maple-candied bacon chocolate chip cookies that are displayed by the check-out aisle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to send business five minutes this way or five minutes that way \u2013 no one\u2019s going to quit,\u201d said Vincent, who admits to enjoying a cigar himself now and then.<\/p>\n
Encouraged by the New England Convenience Store Association, Vincent has been asking customers to sign a petition against the proposal. He has gathered more than 800 signatures so far, and other merchants are on track to deliver hundreds more to town officials this week.<\/p>\n
David Sutton, a spokesman for Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group Inc., owner of the nation\u2019s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, called the proposal a \u201cbad policy\u201d that will harm local employers. \u201cWe believe businesses should be able to choose which products they carry,\u201d Sutton said. \u201cIf the ban were to be implemented, adult tobacco and e-vapor consumers could shift their purchases to neighboring stores. The proposed regulations, if enacted, would fundamentally alter these businesses and would likely cost Westminster jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
So many people have called Town Hall about the proposal, the Board of Health \u2013 whose meetings about septic systems and mosquito control rarely attract an audience \u2013 will hold Wednesday\u2019s public hearing in an elementary school cafeteria rather than in its usual second-floor conference room. Colleen Conner, who pops into Vincent\u2019s nearly every day to pick up a pack of American Spirits, is among those who signed the petition. Should the measure pass, she said, she\u2019ll drive 25 miles north to New Hampshire and buy her cigarettes in bulk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re a smoker, you\u2019ll quit when you\u2019re ready, not because someone told you to,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to hurt the store \u2013 and I love the store.\u201d Swedberg, the town health agent, said the Board of Health hopes that if it enacts the regulation, loyal customers will support local businesses by buying more nontobacco products. And she thinks stores could see another benefit: \u201cFor people who are trying to quit, it could be a better place for them to shop, because they wouldn\u2019t be confronted with tobacco.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board members will take public comment into account, Swedberg said. But she remains supportive of the ban and hopes more communities across the country will follow Westminster\u2019s example.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an admirable goal, said Westminster resident Claudia Kulik, who turned to a hypnotist to quit cigarettes 10 years ago. Yet even she doubts that making it impossible to buy tobacco products in town would make a difference to a smoker seeking a fix. She once went out in an ice storm for cigarettes. \u201cI would have gone through hell or high water,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Source: Portland Press Herald\u00a0 9th Nov. 2014<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Local shops in Westminster\u2013 and local smokers \u2013 oppose a total prohibition. The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent\u2019s Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get their way. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}