Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller is proposing banning the sale of e-cigarettes from all stores in the city (including gas stations or convenience stores) – except from the city’s two existing adult-only retail tobacco stores, e.g. Vape Daddy in Nonantum and Garden City Vape & Smoke in Newton Highlands.
Here’s the statement she released today in her email newsletter.
E-cigarettes – or vaping – is a growing epidemic. The numbers are staggering, and the ramifications alarming. Newton’s educators and parents are seeing more and more students vaping, and the users are getting younger and younger. Superintendent David Fleishman held a parent forum on vaping this past winter and newly revised anti-tobacco and anti-vaping education programs will be introduced in the elementary schools next year.
But, we need to do more.
Working in collaboration with Health and Human Services Commissioner Deborah Youngblood, we are moving forward with a regulation to make it more difficult for youngsters to have access to this addictive product in Newton. We are proposing to restrict e-cigarette sales in Newton to the two adult-only retail tobacco stores, e.g. Vape Daddy and Garden City Vape & Smoke. (Please note that we have already capped the number of adult-only retail tobacco stores to two.) This in effect means e-cigarettes and related products would no longer be available at gas stations or convenience stores.
The regulation won’t stop the epidemic, but it’s an important step forward.
The complete draft regulation will be available in August. The pubic will have an opportunity to voice their opinions at a listening session in October. The new regulation is proposed to take effect in December 2019.
General questions may be directed to [email protected]. Specific answers are unlikely to be available until after mid-August when the draft regulation is available.
An absolutely ludicrous overreaction, and overreach of a Mayor’s authority. While I’m sensitive to the problem of young people vaping tobacco, the solution is not further restricting adult access to smoking cessation devices like Juul. The Mayor’s unfortunate action is going to cause a lot of people who quit cigarettes to start smoking again.
San Francisco seeks to Bans Sale of July and other e-cigarettes yesterday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/us/juul-ban.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Two stores in separate parts of the city is adequate for adults to buy what they want/need. This is a good good decision that can be part of a solution to a growing problem in the city.
So were allowing up to 8 pot shops, but just 2 e-cigarette locations.
The optics are interesting!
I’m generally a fan of the mayor but I think this is a seriously misguided policy.
Can’t say I’m proud of it but I was a smoker for 35 years. A couple of years ago I switched to vapes. Vapes are definitely not a great choice for a recreational activity but they are definitely immensely preferable to cigarettes from a health point of view.
Certainly youth vaping is an important issue but we already have straight forward regulations that deal with that issue – minors are not allowed to buy them. This new proposal seems to be the city throwing up its hands and saying it cant enforce the law.
As other commenters have pointed out, we sell other controlled substances (alcohol, matijuana) that minors are not allowed to buy. If minors are buying vapes at Newton retail outlets, enforce the law. If the city cant manage that then they better shut down the liquor stores, the marijuana dispensaries …. and while you’re at it ban cars too, the unlicensed minors will get ahold of those too.
You’d have to be naive to believe Newton’s retail stores are where underage kids get their vaping supplies. The blame lies at the feet of a porous internet and/or smuggled and counterfeit pods, much of it shipped internationally. Kids find an obscure online source where they can buy without verification, and word spreads at the speed of the internet.
Greatly restricting local vape shop sales is just a feel-good measure. It does nothing to address the actual source of the problem. Worse, it’s punitive to some local retailers who’ve been compliant. It arbitrarily rewards other local retailers with a citywide duopoly. It inconveniences legal buyers.
And I say that as a former smoker with no sympathy for the tobacco industry. This response is fundamentally wrong-headed.
I wonder if the Chamber of Commerce and its members have any thoughts?