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Court upholds town bylaw banning anyone born in 21st century from buying tobacco products (apnews.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A Massachusetts town that adopted an unusual ordinance banning the sale of tobacco to anyone born in the 21st century is being looked at as a possible model for other cities and towns hoping to further clamp down on cigarettes and tobacco products.

The bylaw — the first of its kind in the country — was adopted by Brookline in 2020 and last week was upheld by the state’s highest court, opening the door for other communities to adopt similar bans that will, decades from now, eventually bar all future generations from buying tobacco.

The rule, which bans the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2000, went into effect in 2021 in the town of about 60,000 next to Boston.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

This is a bit much; I'd rather see UK-style warnings on tobacco products, and a ban on smoking in public places, including outdoors. That way those who choose to consume tobacco are free to do so (as they should be) but they are thoroughly and completely warned of the consequences, and they can't pollute the air around them for others. There are few things worse than being stuck downwind of a smoker on a public sidewalk (especially as an ex-smoker — you never stop missing tobacco in my experience).

[–] Lmaydev 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

"free" is a relative term. Driven by addiction might be more accurate for many.

I don't personally believe companies should be allowed to encourage addiction to make money.

The warnings do absolutely nothing as well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

"free" is a relative term. Driven by addiction might be more accurate for many.

You can become addicted to anything; that doesn't mean the government should step in and prevent you from doing something that you enjoy and only harms yourself. People have the right to bodily autonomy, and that includes allowing consenting adults to take actions that are harmful or unhealthy to themselves. Plus, what happens when you ban tobacco or tax it to oblivion? A massive unregulated black market appears and people wind up smoking lead from China. This literally happened in the UK, right around the time when I was buying loose tobacco from less than legitimate sources because it was so expensive in the shops. This is is the kind of thing that happens every single time any kind of prohibition is enacted; you'd think we'd have learned by now!

I don't personally believe companies should be allowed to encourage addiction to make money.

Agreed. Ban tobacco marketing of any kind, ban tobacco product logos, branding, etc, sell them in brown paper bags, ban smoking in publicly funded media, I'm all for it. These companies are evil, for sure, but preventing the sale of tobacco isn't the answer. Prohibition literally never works.

The warnings do absolutely nothing as well.

but they do though...