City Council support for Senate Bill 2152 which would see the Commonwealth of Massachusetts raise the age to legally …

Smoking currently causes over 10,000 premature deaths each year in Massachusetts alone. Unfortunately, every year 3,900 Massachusetts children replace these big tobacco customers, becoming daily smokers themselves.

The economy also suffers, as direct health care from tobacco use costs Massachusetts over $4 billion a year, and an additional $2.4 billion in lost productivity. Much of that is at the expense of employers paying health insurance premiums and taxpayers financing Medicaid and Medicare.

Our municipality has already adopted our own Tobacco 21 ordinance, along with over 100 other municipalities in Massachusetts covering nearly half the population of the state, in order to reduce the health and economic burden of nicotine and tobacco addiction.

Our municipality believes that Massachusetts should join Hawaii and California in passing a statewide Tobacco 21 law, continuing the state’s leadership role. We support Senate Bill 2152, which will increase the age of legal tobacco purchased from 18 years old to 21 years old.

Tobacco 21 is supported by every major national public health organization, empirical evidence, and 75% of the public. Age 21 reduces initiation in younger kids and reduces addiction in older teens. By increasing the legal purchase age, we will be ensuring our children do not suffer a lifetime of health problems because of addiction to tobacco products.

As of we support Massachusetts raising the legal age of tobacco purchase from 18 years old to 21 years old.

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