By NEIL ZOLOT
NORTH READING — School Committee members are taking a wait-and-see attitude on the Nicotine-Free Generation proposal before the town’s board of Board of Health and the state Senate bill 1568/House bill 2562, An Act to Create a Tobacco Free Generation now before the legislature.
Both initiatives are moving forward independent of one another and would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to persons born on or after a specified date within the community and/or the state beyond the age of 21.
Anyone currently able to legally purchase tobacco products (those now over age 21) would not lose the right to do so.
“I think it’s a very interesting idea, but it’s outside what we do,” School Committee member Scott Buckley said at the board’s meeting Monday night. “I don’t like nicotine at all, but don’t know if it should be community by community or state by state.” Buckley noted that if sales are prohibited in one community, someone could just go to another.
“This policy, implemented at the local level, ties the ability to buy nicotine products to a set date versus a person’s birthdate. For example, if a policy were to go into effect on January 1, 2026, nobody born after January 1, 2005 (21 years prior) would ever be able to buy nicotine in this state,” according to a statement dated Sept. 18 by the North Reading Youth Substance Use Prevention Coalition.
Three NFG public informational sessions
Regardless of whether the state legislature adopts this bill, North Reading can adopt its own Nicotine-Free Generation policy by town vote or Board of Health measure. This fall, the North Reading Board of Health is seeking input from the community about the idea. The first informational session was held Tuesday, Sept. 30 (after press time). Two more public informational sessions are scheduled before the BOH on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. in the NRHS Distance Learning Lab and Thursday, Nov. 20 at 10 a.m. in Room 14 of Town Hall. School Committee members plan to attend one or more local sessions.
In response to a question posed by the Transcript, Superintendent Dr. Patrick Daly stated that the matter was included on Monday night’s agenda to “discuss the committee’s participation at this and similar events and to see if there was anything that the committee believed came under their jurisdiction, which they did not.” He added that the School Committee “is not taking a position on NFG and we are going to the meeting (Tuesday night) to learn more.”
Although no one from the Youth Substance Coalition or Community Impact Team (CIT) attended the school board’s meeting Monday, CIT Advisory Board Chairman and Fire Chief Don Stats told the Transcript on Tuesday that “the CIT is supportive of the legislation.” He opted to withhold further comment pending feedback received at the local hearings.
“Knowing the impact this will have outside the schools, the appropriate venue is the Board of Health,” School Committee Chairman Jeff Friedman stated.
“There are different sides to it,” School Committee member Jennifer Lenders acknowledged at Monday’s meeting.
“I am certainly aware of the danger tobacco use presents to children,” Supt. Daly said in an email to the Transcript. “It’s very important to educate them about those topics in our health classes and through presentations with our Youth Substance Abuse prevention team.”
“We have not taken a vote to either support or oppose the legislation and I would not presume to speak for the rest of the board without thoughtful consideration on the topic,” Friedman stated via email. “As Dr. Daly stated, our goal is to be educated on the topic.”
The statewide bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Jason Lewis (D-Winchester) and Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose). The six communities that Lewis represents have adopted local NFG bans (Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, Winchester). Lipper-Garabedian’s district also includes Wakefield and parts of Malden. Another co-sponsor is Rep. Tommy Vitolo of Brookline, which was the first town to pass local legislation at Town Meeting in Nov. 2020 prohibiting the sale of nicotine to anyone born after January 1, 2000. It is being cited as a model for the state bill.
“This bill will save countless lives and create a healthier world for the next generation,” Lewis stated last November. “We all know the devastating health effects of nicotine and tobacco products, especially on our youth who are targeted by ‘Big Tobacco.’ I will fight to make this a statewide policy.”
Opposition to the state bill has centered on it harming small, locally owned businesses, by restricting revenue, limiting consumer choice, creating a dangerous black market, unfairly targeting adults for purchasing legal products, and failing to address use of tobacco by the young.
House Minority Leader Bradley Jones (R-North Reading) is not supporting the legislation. Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), whose district includes North Reading, did not respond by press time.