Should Massachusetts lift its ban on flavored tobacco products?
Read two views and vote in our online poll.
By John Laidler Globe Correspondent,Updated December 23, 2020, 4:40 p.m.
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Jonathan Shaer
Executive Director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, based in Stoughton; Needham resident
Jonathan Shaer
Prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco by licensed retailers in Massachusetts was an ill-conceived, excessive policy that has failed by every measure and should be repealed.
The focus of the law should be restricting all points of youth access to vape, including online and social sources, and curtailing the myriad flavors that make it so attractive to underage youth. Period. Yet, the governor signed into law a policy that goes well beyond vape to include menthol cigarettes and mint/wintergreen smokeless tobacco â both adult products â with consequences for the state, small businesses, and minority adults.