Selectmen Question Tobacco Age Hike Vote by Board of Health

A recent vote by the Board of Health to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products in Mansfield from 18 to 21 has the selectmen questioning the vote.

Criticizing the 2-1-1 vote taken on June 18, Selectman Olivier Kozlowski referred to the vote as, “a slap in the face to everyone between the ages of 18-21.”

“I strongly urge them to reconsider and I’ll go a step further and say what they’ve done has insulted everyone 18-21 in this town and said that they don’t trust them to make their own decisions,” Kozlowski said at a recent meeting of the selectmen.

Kozlowski and other selectmen also expressed concern that the five-member Board of Health made their decision without a full board, allowing a minority to pass the new regulations.

“I do have a concern when this magnitude is decided by a minority,” Selectman Frank DelVecchio said.

Selectman Jess Aptowitz said he believed the move was going to hurt businesses, pushing customers to other stores In neighboring towns.

“The frustration I have is that someone is going to go right down the street to another town and do what they’re gonna do,” Aptowitz said. “Whether it’s a health issue or not, someone who is smoking at 19 is going to go down the street. I would have liked to see them vote with five and if it’s a majority then it is what it is.”

The purchasing age increase does not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2016 and it is unknown whether the Board of Health will reconsider the vote with a full board at a future meeting.

A motion from Kozlowski to send a letter to the board asking them to reconsider failed 2-2 at the end of the discussion.