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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.”
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