In Massachusetts, The 'Nicotine-Free Generation' Meets An Old Problem: Prohibition

By Randall Bloomquist, NH Journal

The science on fighting cigarette smoking is clear, public health experts say: Prohibition doesn’t work.

But the politics? That can be very different.

In Massachusetts, more than 20 communities have adopted an age-based version of prohibition known as “Nicotine-Free Generation” (NFG) policies. It’s a lifetime ban on the purchase of all nicotine products for people born after a specific date.

For example, Brookline, Mass., the first community to pass an age-based lifetime ban, forbids selling cigarettes, vapes or pouches to anyone born on or after January 1, 2000. Unlike traditional age restrictions, NFG prohibitions do not expire when a person turns 21. A resident born in 2001 will never be able to legally buy tobacco in Brookline, whether at age 25, 45 or 65.

Or as Dr. Jeff Willett with the Project to End Smoking at the Progressive Policy Institute puts it, “This is the gradual implementation of adult prohibition.”

Willett made his comments at an InsideSources public health roundtable in Boston on the NFG policy.

Willett’s objection is that the goal of public policy should be to get as many smokers as possible off cigarettes, and to do so right away. Age-based bans “abandon people who smoke,” Willett said.

“There’s a huge unmet population of people who want to quit and have been unable to do so. We should be creating opportunities for them to switch to a significantly lower-risk nicotine product.”

Another objection to the NFG movement is how a coalition of anti-nicotine advocates and government officials used questionable tactics to get these policies in place. According to reporting by Reason magazine, activists are skirting the democratic process and using local health boards to impose the age-based bans.

The Somerville, Mass., health board passed an NFG regulation a month before a scheduled public hearing on the issue. Belchertown’s director of public health worked with NFG advocates to solicit templated pro-NFG email comments, then approved the policy despite receiving 1,000 emails in opposition.

Most egregiously, the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea’s board of health adopted its NFG policy after it was voted down in a non-binding resolution at town meeting. It had to be done, the town’s health director said, to protect the children.

Dr. Michael Siegel from the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine has been watching the NFG movement grow in Massachusetts. He says the net result isn’t protecting children; it’s promoting cigarette smoking. Siegel told the roundtable that these NFG towns have also banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in most retail outlets.

“Five million people in the United States have successfully quit smoking using e-cigarettes,” Siegel said. “Five million.”

“So what these towns are basically saying is, ‘We want to stop you from smoking, but if you’re already smoking, we’re not going to make this product available to you.’ But in every one of these towns, any adult can walk into a convenience store and pick up a pack of Marlboros — one of the most deadly products on the planet,” Siegel said.

Advocates for the Nicotine-Free Generation strategy argue that it will end the problem before it begins. “By creating a generational firewall, we can ensure that future generations grow up free from the dangers of nicotine-related illnesses,” said Laurent Huber, executive director of the advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health.

But the impacts of this prohibition policy are already in evidence. Consumers hit by the age-based ban in one town simply head to the next, or they buy their products online. When Massachusetts enacted a statewide ban on flavored tobacco products, sales (and tax revenues) across the border in New Hampshire soared.

“Prohibition has never worked in the United States,” former Rochester, NY, Deputy Police Chief Wayne Harris told the roundtable. “It did not work with alcohol. It did not work with the war on drugs in the 1980s, and it’s not going to work with tobacco or tobacco products.”

The NFG movement is losing momentum, according to a report by the Boston Globe, which notes that “since 2020, two dozen communities have adopted NFG regulations, while the same number have declined or postponed ban proposals.”

The paper quotes one of the founders of the movement, Mark Gottlieb of Northeastern University, warning that if the effort doesn’t grow by about a dozen towns a year, “it will be a sign that we’re losing some momentum on this policy, and maybe other policies should be considered instead.”

If so, Willett hopes those other policies will focus on helping smokers quit instead of simply banning nicotine products.

“Prohibition doesn’t end demand. It will lead to illicit suppliers and illicit sales, and it will create more problems than it provides pragmatic solutions.”

Randall Bloomquist is the owner of Bloomquist Media, a writing and editorial services firm. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.