Whereas tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause
of death and disease in the United States. First-hand and second-hand
smoke are major public health concerns. Cigarette smoking harms nearly
every organ of the body, causes many diseases, and reduces the health
of smokers in general with smokers more likely than nonsmokers to
develop heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.;
Whereas the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has
concluded that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or heroin and the Surgeon General found that nicotine exposure during
adolescence, a critical window for brain development, may have lasting
adverse consequences for brain development, and that it is addiction to nicotine that keeps youth
smoking past adolescence.;
Whereas E-cigarette use among U.S. youth and young adults is
now a major public health concern. E-cigarette use has increased considerably
in recent years, growing an astounding 900% among high school students
from 2011 to 2015. These products are now the most commonly used form
of tobacco among youth in the United States, surpassing conventional
tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and
hookahs. Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which can cause addiction
and can harm the developing adolescent brain.;
Whereas the federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control
Act (FSPTCA), enacted in 2009, prohibited candy- and fruit-flavored
cigarettes, largely because these flavored products were marketed
to youth and young adults, and younger smokers were more likely to have tried these
products than older smokers, neither federal nor Massachusetts laws restrict sales
of flavored non-cigarette tobacco products, such as cigars, cigarillos,
smokeless tobacco, hookah tobacco, and electronic devices and the
nicotine solutions used in these devices;
Whereas any use of e-cigarettes, hookah, noncigarette combustible
tobacco, or smokeless tobacco was independently associated with cigarette
smoking 1 year later. Use of more than 1 product increased the odds
of progressing to cigarette use.;
Whereas despite state laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products
to minors, access by minors to tobacco products is a major public
health problem;
Now, therefore it is the intention of the Ashland Board of Health
to regulate the sale of tobacco products.
For the purpose of this regulation, the following words shall
have the following meanings:
Blunt Wrap: Any tobacco product manufactured or packaged as
a wrap or as a hollow tube made wholly or in part from tobacco that
is designed or intended to be filled by the consumer with loose tobacco
or other fillers.
Business Agent: An individual who has been designated by the
owner or operator of any establishment to be the manager or otherwise
in charge of said establishment.
Cigar: Any roll of tobacco that is wrapped in leaf tobacco or
in any substance containing tobacco with or without a tip or mouthpiece
not otherwise defined as a cigarette under Massachusetts General Law,
Chapter 64C, Section 1, Paragraph 1.
Characterizing flavor: A distinguishable taste or aroma other
than the taste of tobacco or menthol, imparted or detectable either
prior to or during consumption of a tobacco product or component part
thereof, including, but not limited to, tastes or aromas relating
to any fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic
beverage, herb or spice; provided, however, that no tobacco product
shall be determined to have a characterizing flavor solely because
of the provision of ingredient information or the use of additives
or flavorings that do not contribute to the distinguishable taste
or aroma of the product.
Component part: Any element of a tobacco product, including,
but not limited to, the tobacco, filter and paper, but not including
any constituent.
Constituent: Any ingredient, substance, chemical or compound,
other than tobacco, water or reconstituted tobacco sheet, that is
added by the manufacturer to a tobacco product during the processing,
manufacturing or packaging of the tobacco product. Such term shall
include a smoke constituent.
Coupon: Any card, paper, note, form, statement, ticket or other
issue distributed for commercial or promotional purposes to be later
surrendered by the bearer so as to receive an article, service or
accommodation without charge or at a discount price.
Distinguishable: Perceivable by either the sense of smell or
taste.
Educational Institution: Any public or private college, school,
professional school, scientific or technical institution, university
or other institution furnishing a program of higher education.
Employee: Any individual who performs services for an employer.
Employer: Any individual, partnership, association, corporation,
trust or other organized group of individuals that uses the services
of one (1) or more employees.
Flavored tobacco product: Any tobacco product or component part
thereof that contains a constituent that has or produces a characterizing
flavor. A public statement, claim or indicia made or disseminated
by the manufacturer of a tobacco product, or by any person authorized
or permitted by the manufacturer to make or disseminate public statements
concerning such tobacco product, that such tobacco product has or
produces a characterizing flavor shall constitute presumptive evidence
that the tobacco product is a flavored tobacco product.
Health Care Institution: An individual, partnership, association,
corporation or trust or any person or group of persons that provides
health care services and employs health care providers licensed, or
subject to licensing, by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
under M.G.L. c. 112 or a retail establishment that provides pharmaceutical
goods and services and is subject to the provisions of 247 CMR 6.00.
Health care institutions include, but are not limited to, hospitals,
clinics, health centers, pharmacies, drug stores, doctor offices,
optician/optometrist offices and dentist offices.
Liquid Nicotine Container: A bottle or other vessel which contains
nicotine in liquid or gel form, whether or not combined with another
substance or substances, for use in a tobacco product, as defined
herein. The term does not include a container containing nicotine
in a cartridge that is sold, marketed, or intended for use in a tobacco
product, as defined herein, if the cartridge is prefilled and sealed
by the manufacturer and not intended to be open by the consumer or
retailer.
Listed or non-discounted price: The higher of the price listed
for a tobacco product on its package or the price listed on any related
shelving, posting, advertising or display at the place where the tobacco
product is sold or offered for sale plus all applicable taxes if such
taxes are not included in the state price, and before the application
of any discounts or coupons.
Minimum Legal Sales Age (MLSA): The age an individual must be
before that individual can be sold a tobacco product in the municipality.
Non-Residential Roll-Your-Own (RYO) Machine: A mechanical device
made available for use (including to an individual who produces cigars,
cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, pipe tobacco, or roll-your-own tobacco
solely for the individual's own personal consumption or use)
that is capable of making cigarettes, cigars or other tobacco products.
RYO machines located in private homes used for solely personal consumption
are not Non-Residential RYO machines.
Permit Holder: Any person engaged in the sale or distribution
of tobacco products who applies for and receives a tobacco product
sales permit or any person who is required to apply for a Tobacco
Product Sales Permit pursuant to these regulations, or his or her
business agent.
Person: Any individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation,
company or organization of any kind, including but not limited to,
an owner, operator, manager, proprietor or person in charge of any
establishment, business or retail store.
Retail Tobacco Store: An establishment that is not required
to possess a retail food permit whose primary purpose is to sell or
offer for sale, but not for resale, tobacco products and tobacco paraphernalia,
in which the sale of other products is merely incidental, and in which
the entry of persons under the minimum legal sales age is prohibited
at all times, and maintains a valid permit for the retail sale of
tobacco products as required to be issued by the Ashland Board of
Health.
Self-Service Display: Any display from which customers may select
a tobacco product, as defined herein, without assistance from an employee
or store personnel.
Schools: Public or private elementary or secondary schools.
Smoke Accessories: Equipment, products, devices, or materials
of any kind that are intended or designed for use in ingesting, inhaling,
or otherwise introducing Tobacco Product, marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), or cannabidiol (CBD) into the human body, including, but not
limited to, Marijuana Accessories, bongs, pipes, glass pipes, vaporizers,
vape pens, hookah apparatus, dab rigs, pods, tanks, and cartridges.
Smoke Constituent: Any chemical or chemical compound in mainstream
or sidestream tobacco smoke that either transfers from any component
of the tobacco product to the smoke or that is formed by the combustion
or heating of tobacco, additives or other component of the tobacco
product.
Smoking Bar: An establishment that primarily is engaged in the retail sale of tobacco products for consumption by customers on the premises and is required by Mass. General Law Ch.
270, § 22 to maintain a valid permit to operate a smoking bar issued by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. "Smoking bar" shall include, but not be limited to, those establishments that are commonly known as "cigar bars" and "hookah bars".
Tobacco Product: Any product containing, made, or derived from
tobacco or nicotine that is intended for human consumption, whether
smoked, chewed, absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, snorted, sniffed, or
ingested by any other means, including, but not limited to: cigarettes,
cigars, little cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, snuff, or electronic
cigarettes, electronic cigars, electronic pipes, electronic hookah,
or other similar products, regardless of nicotine content, that rely
on vaporization or aerosolization. "Tobacco product" includes any
component or part of a tobacco product. "Tobacco product" does not
include any product that has been approved by the United States Food
and Drug Administration either as a tobacco use cessation product
or for other medical purposes and which is being marketed and sold
or prescribed solely for the approved purpose.
Vending Machine: Any automated or mechanical self-service device,
which upon insertion of money, tokens or any other form of payment,
dispenses or makes cigarettes or any other tobacco products, as defined
herein.
All self-service displays of tobacco products, as defined herein,
are prohibited. All humidors including, but not limited to, walk-in
humidors must be locked. The only self-service displays that are permissible
pursuant to U.S. FDA and Massachusetts Attorney General Regulations
are displays that are located in Retail Tobacco Stores that ensure
that no person younger than the MLSA is present, or permitted to enter,
at any time.
No health care institution located in Ashland shall sell or
cause to be sold tobacco products, as defined herein. No retail establishment
that operates or has a health care institution within it, such as
a pharmacy, optician/optometrist or drug store, shall sell or cause
to be sold tobacco products, as defined herein.
This regulation shall take effect on January 1, 2020 except for §
305-3 "Characterizing Flavors" definition that will eliminate the word "menthol" and this noted change shall take effect June 1, 2020.
The revisions to this Regulation, which include the State mandated
fines, shall take effect May 4, 2021.