Legislation that would raise the state's legal tobacco-purchasing age to 21, ban tobacco sales in pharmacies, and regulate e-cigarettes will be debated in the Massachusetts Senate next week, according to the Senate's top Democrat.
"The next big matter before the Senate will be raising the legal age to purchase cigarettes from 18 to 21, and also do some additional regulation on e-cigarettes, I think they're called," Senate President Stanley Rosenberg told the News Service on Tuesday.
Based on eight separate tobacco bills filed by House and Senate lawmakers this session, the Joint Committee on Public Health put together a bill (S 2152) dubbed "An Act to protect youth from the health risks of tobacco and nicotine addiction" that is now before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and is slated to hit the Senate floor in formal session on April 28.
State Sen. Jason Lewis, a Winchester Democrat who co-chairs the Public Health Committee, described the bill's three main provisions -- a three-year increase in the age for tobacco sales, a ban on sales in pharmacies, and the addition of e-cigarettes to the state's anti-smoking laws -- as "proven strategies for reducing nicotine addiction among young people." Read More>
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