The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket upheld a regulation within the city of Brookline that bans the sale of tobacco merchandise to anybody born on or after Jan 1, 2000.
The gradual phase-out of tobacco gross sales primarily based on birthdate is commonly known as Tobacco-Free Era. The regulation forbids solely industrial gross sales, not the acquisition, possession, or use of tobacco, that means the act of smoking will not be criminalized.
Brookline’s Tobacco-Free Era regulation was first handed at a city assembly on Nov 17, 2020. Earlier than passing the regulation, Brookline sought an opinion from then-Lawyer Common—and now Governor—Maura Healey, who concluded that the coverage was not preempted by state regulation. The regulation has remained in pressure throughout litigation, and other people 23 years of age or youthful can’t be offered tobacco in Brookline.
The lawsuit resulting in the choice was introduced by a pair of outlets in Brookline who argued that the coverage is preempted by state regulation, regardless of the prevailing authorized opinion saying the other. The unique case was thrown out on a movement to dismiss, and the plaintiffs appealed to the state supreme court docket.
Anti-tobacco group Motion on Smoking and Well being applauded the choice. “In the present day’s determination indicators that we’ve moved from mitigating the demise and illness from tobacco to ending it,” says Laurent Huber, govt director of Motion on Smoking and Well being, in a launch.
Brookline was the primary city in Massachusetts to ban smoking in bars and eating places and among the many first to ban all flavors in tobacco merchandise, together with menthol. Massachusetts was additionally the primary state to ban all flavors in tobacco merchandise.
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