Lawmakers in Massachusetts are trying to eventually stop the sale of tobacco

A group of lawmakers in Massachusetts are attempting to outlaw young people from buying nicotine products with a proposal that will, in time, prevent everyone from buying them.

Not only would the new proposal prohibit anyone under the legal age of 21 from purchasing tobacco products, it would ensure that anyone born after a certain year wouldn’t be able to buy them either, as first reported by the Associated Press.

“We all know the devastating health effects of nicotine and tobacco products, especially on our youth who are targeted by Big Tobacco,” Democratic Sen. Jason Lewis said in a post on X on Tuesday.

Lewis and others plan to file the Nicotine-Free Generation bill at the start of 2025.

Massachusetts has already taken on tobacco products recently and won. In 2018, the state raised the legal age to buy tobacco products, such as cigarettes, cigars, and e-cigarettes, to 21. The Bay State would be the first state to adopt a ban of this kind.

This generational ban is somewhat unique nationally but has already taken place within the state. Brookline, Massachusetts, a town five miles outside Boston, put in place a similar ban in 2020 — anyone born after January 1, 2000, is unable to ever purchase tobacco products.

It was challenged, but courts upheld the ban in early 2024. Nearby Massachusetts towns, such as Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Winchester, followed Brookline’s playbook and also placed generational bans on tobacco products.

In the US, California is trying to ban the purchase of tobacco products by 2073. New Zealand was the first country to impose a generational ban, but the country repealed that ban this year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly nine out of 10 adults who smoke cigarettes daily tried smoking by the age of 18.

Lewis said that this proposed ban would be aimed at the youth in an attempt to protect them from the health concerns of tobacco products.

“This bill will not take away the right to purchase nicotine and tobacco products from anyone who is already legally able to do so,” he said. “Rather, this legislation will protect future generations from nicotine addiction and the resulting health harms.”