{"id":2633,"date":"2014-11-11T02:18:20","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T02:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2633"},"modified":"2014-11-11T02:18:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T02:18:55","slug":"town-in-massachusetts-considers-banning-all-tobacco-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2633","title":{"rendered":"Town in Massachusetts considers banning all tobacco sales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"250px-Westminster,_Massachusetts\"<\/a>
Westminster, Massachusetts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A tiny town in Massachusetts — Westminster — is proposing to ban all tobacco sales. <\/a>The city is holding a public hearing on this proposal this week. If Westminster does this, it will be the first town in the U.S. to actually ban tobacco sales.<\/p>\n

A local store owner is asking people to sign a petition against it, saying that tobacco sales make up about 5 percent of his retail sales.<\/p>\n

From the Christian Science Monitor article:<\/p>\n

“It’s going to send business five minutes this way or five minutes that way \u2014 no one’s going to quit,” said Brian Vincent, who admits to enjoying a cigar himself now and then.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He has gathered more than 800 signatures and other stores owners claim they will present the town’s health board with petitions with several hundred more signatures.<\/p>\n

Of course, Altria (Philip Morris) has chimed in<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

David Sutton, a spokesman for Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group Inc.<\/a>, owner of the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, called the proposal a “bad policy” that will harm local employers.<\/p>\n

“We believe businesses should be able to choose which products they carry,” Sutton said. “If the ban were to be implemented, adult tobacco and e-vapor consumers could shift their purchases to neighboring stores. The proposed regulations, if enacted, would fundamentally alter these businesses and would likely cost Westminster jobs.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I will guarantee that if the town goes ahead with the ban, Altria and R.J. Reynolds will likely file suit, or at least assist any grocers’ association lawsuit.<\/p>\n

I have mixed feelings about the proposal. Of course, I’m totally against tobacco, but these sorts of punitive measures usually don’t serve a lot of purpose in the long run, I think. Like someone said, it will just force smokers to drive a few minutes out of their way to another town. Education is more effective, I think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tiny town in Massachusetts — Westminster — is proposing to ban all tobacco sales. The city is holding a public hearing on this proposal this week. If Westminster does this, it will be the first town in the U.S. to actually ban tobacco sales. A local store owner is asking people to sign a … Continue reading Town in Massachusetts considers banning all tobacco sales<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[366,224],"tags":[367,696],"class_list":["post-2633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-massachusetts","category-tobacco-sales","tag-tobacco-bans","tag-westminster"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/250px-Westminster_Massachusetts.jpg?fit=250%2C196&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-Gt","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2656,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2656","url_meta":{"origin":2633,"position":0},"title":"Westminster, Mass., goes bonkers over proposed ban on tobacco sales","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, I fully expected this hearing to be heated, but even this blew me away. The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, has proposed banning all tobacco sales within town limits. It's understandably a controversial idea. Well, the hearing\u00a0got so whack, it had to be stopped 20 minutes after it started. Nearly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tobacco sales"","block_context":{"text":"tobacco sales","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=224"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/18SMOKE2-master675-v2.jpg?fit=675%2C436&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/18SMOKE2-master675-v2.jpg?fit=675%2C436&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/18SMOKE2-master675-v2.jpg?fit=675%2C436&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2683,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2683","url_meta":{"origin":2633,"position":1},"title":"Westminster, Mass., drops bad idea to ban all tobacco sales","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I saw this coming from a mile away. Westminster, Mass., which came up with a proposal to ban all tobacco sales within town limits, dropped the whole thing after a huge uproar, both from a petition opposing it and a throng of people who showed up at the town's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tobacco sales"","block_context":{"text":"tobacco sales","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=224"},"img":{"alt_text":"no tobacco","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/no-tobacco.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2256,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2256","url_meta":{"origin":2633,"position":2},"title":"Mother Jones jumps on tobacco on military bases story","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Mother Jones has an interesting take on a story I posted about a few weeks ago, when a proposal to ban tobacco sales on military bases fizzled. Mother Jones writes: Suppose you wanted to quit drinking, but all the AA meetings in your town were held in the back of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Military smoking"","block_context":{"text":"Military smoking","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=293"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/oldcamelad630.jpg?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/oldcamelad630.jpg?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/oldcamelad630.jpg?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4305,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4305","url_meta":{"origin":2633,"position":3},"title":"Washington, Massachusetts ban flavoured vapes","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"While Trump and the federal government dithers, the staet of Washington has banned flavoured vapes and Massachusetts may not be far behind. Washington made the decision via executive order in October, but it's not necessarily permanent. The ban is just for 120 days, but Gov. Jay Inslee has requested a\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4305#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/180327-vape-flavors-al-1051_b186cecc1b2c2c1c6b40cbaba76eb4bf.fit-760w.jpg?fit=760%2C547&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/180327-vape-flavors-al-1051_b186cecc1b2c2c1c6b40cbaba76eb4bf.fit-760w.jpg?fit=760%2C547&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/180327-vape-flavors-al-1051_b186cecc1b2c2c1c6b40cbaba76eb4bf.fit-760w.jpg?fit=760%2C547&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/180327-vape-flavors-al-1051_b186cecc1b2c2c1c6b40cbaba76eb4bf.fit-760w.jpg?fit=760%2C547&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3977,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3977","url_meta":{"origin":2633,"position":4},"title":"California voters raise cigarette tax by $2 a pack","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Lost in all the hubbub over this election (and a reason why I waited a week and a half to post about it) was California voters approving a $2 a pack increase in their cigarette tax. California will go from having one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sjm-tobacco-09xx-021.jpg?fit=512%2C387&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2225,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2225","url_meta":{"origin":2633,"position":5},"title":"Committee votes to allow tobacco sales on military bases","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A loss for the anti-tobacco crowd. They had been a proposal to ban tobacco sales on military bases (not smoking, but sales), but the House Armed Services Committee (obviously stacked with Republicans) did the opposite, approving a measure to specifically protect tobacco sales on military bases. 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