BROOKLINE, Mass. — The idea was genius, Richard Lopez thought: a slow but relentless way to ban tobacco for good.
Lopez chairs the board of health in Reading, Mass., a city of 25,000 north of Boston. Last month, the board passed an ordinance to create what advocates call a “nicotine-free generation.”
People born in 2004 or later are no longer allowed to purchase cigarettes or nicotine products in Reading once they reach 21, the legal age to do so.
The policy won’t affect older smokers, who are free to continue their habit, Lopez said. But with each passing year, more people will be banned from buying. It’s “an endgame for tobacco and nicotine,” he said.
Reading isn’t alone: Five other Massachusetts municipalities have taken the same step in recent months, building on the example set by Boston suburb Brookline in 2020. At least two other cities in the state are considering joining them.
The moves put Massachusetts at the forefront of a global movement. Britain is considering banning cigarette sales to people born in 2009 or later. New Zealand, meanwhile, had introduced a similar ban but reversed it after a leadership change.
It’s unclear whether the push from a handful of Massachusetts communities to phase out tobacco will grow or fizzle out. Buyers can circumvent the restrictions by simply moving a mile or two to another town. But advocates say other tobacco restrictions — such as banning smoking in restaurants or raising the minimum age to buy cigarettes to 21 — also started small.
Opponents have taken notice. Peter Brennan is executive director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, a group that represents more than 7,000 retailers in the region, along with their suppliers. “You don’t have to be a nicotine user to think this is a little bit ridiculous,” Brennan said. “It’s virtue signaling of the worst kind by these health boards.”
Local authorities responded “so quickly that most people in the cities didn’t even know it had happened,” he added.
Nationally, adult smoking rates have been trending downward for decades, falling below 11 percent for the first time in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing 480,000 people each year, more than car crashes, homicides, suicides and drug overdoses combined.
Anti-tobacco campaigners are alarmed by the growing popularity of e-cigarettes and flavored nicotine pouches, which they say are aimed at young people. One in 10 high school students said they used e-cigarettes, also known as vapes, last year. Only 2 percent said they smoked cigarettes.
That the push for a generational tobacco ban found support in Massachusetts — a liberal state with a history of public health innovation — is perhaps not surprising. In 2005, the Boston suburb of Needham became the first place in the country to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21. Years later, the rule began to spread statewide and was eventually rolled out nationwide during the Trump administration.
In Brookline, an affluent city of 63,000, the proposal to phase out tobacco sales was spearheaded by Katharine Silbaugh, a law professor, and Anthony Ishak, a pharmacist. In 2020, the city voted to pass an ordinance banning the sale of nicotine to anyone born in the 21st century.
The rule went into effect in late 2021, making Brookline the only place in the world with a smoke-free generation policy in place. (Balanga City in the Philippines had already adopted the policy in 2016, but tobacco companies filed a lawsuit that later blocked its implementation.)
Brookline also faced a legal battle. In March, however, the state Supreme Court ruled against the convenience store owners who had challenged the new rule. It rejected their arguments that the ordinance was unconstitutional and that municipalities lacked the authority to impose such restrictions.
Other cities and towns have been watching closely. In relatively short order, Stoneham, Wakefield, Melrose, Winchester, Malden and Reading have passed their own generational bans on tobacco and e-cigarette sales. The rules go into effect Jan. 1, when people born in 2004 turn 21. The cities of Medford and Newton are also exploring similar moves.
Maureen Buzby has worked as a regional tobacco control coordinator for several cities for more than a decade. She described her job as a game of whack-a-mole, trying to stay ahead of an industry that continues to find cheap, streamlined ways to deliver nicotine.
Previous tobacco restrictions were “band-aids,” Buzby said. In contrast, the generational ban “really protects younger people” without “taking anything away from someone who’s already 21.”
Critics disagree. “These prohibition policies just don’t work,” said David Spross, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets. People over 21 are “legally capable of making every other kind of adult rational decision.”
In Brookline, the ordinance is a source of pride for some and deep frustration for others. In 2022, the city fined four tobacco vendors $300 after inspections found they were not following the rule, said Sigalle Reiss, Brookline’s public health director. Subsequent inspections, however, found no violations.
Customers born after Jan. 1, 2000 (the closing date in Brookline) often react angrily and uncomprehendingly to the news that they will no longer be able to buy tobacco products, according to employees at three gas stations.
“They say, ‘I can drink alcohol and buy marijuana, what is this?’” said Zameen Khan, who has worked at a gas station and convenience store in Brookline for 30 years. He points them to the notice in the window with the rules and suggests they go to another city.
Omar Audy, 49, owns two gas stations in Brookline with his father Elias, who was one of the plaintiffs in the case challenging the ordinance. He estimates their tobacco sales are down 30 percent since 2021.
“An adult should be able to do this,” Audy said, exasperated. “I feel very guilty telling people who are 24 that they can’t buy cigarettes. How fair is that?”
While Audy was fuming, a bearded man wearing flip-flops entered the small grocery store. Audy had told him earlier that he couldn’t buy tobacco. “I’m 24!” the man said angrily. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
A few minutes later, a woman in a T-shirt and jean shorts approached the cash register. She had only one cigarette left. The ban didn’t apply to her — she was born in 1996 — but she gave her cautious approval. “I think it’s healthier,” she said. “I wish I’d never started smoking.”
Brennan, executive director of the convenience store association, did not rule out further legal challenges. He said the group was exploring its options, including a possible appeal of the March decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Reiss, the Brookline official, said it’s too early to tell whether the ban will have an impact in the real world. Public health policies are more effective when applied across geographic areas, she said, but “you have to start somewhere.”
Brookline is a place that is willing to “push the boundaries a little bit” to create a healthier community, Reiss added. “I think I’m pretty proud.”
