Ed The first US town to ban tobacco?

[catsmate]

In Massachusetts of course.
The smallish (7,400 population) town of Westminster in the heart of Massachusetts may become the first US town to prohibit the sale of all tobacco products. The town's Board of Health will be holding a public hearing this week on the measure.

Links.
CBC
IBT
Boston Globe

 

[TragicMonkey]

First slavery, now tobacco? Yankees just can't stop themselves from hating the South.

 

[Spindrift]

In Massachusetts of course.
The smallish (7,400 population) town of Westminster in the heart of Massachusetts may become the first US town to prohibit the sale of all tobacco products. The town's Board of Health will be holding a public hearing this week on the measure.

Links.
CBC
IBT
Boston Globe

Massachusetts? The state whose radical governor gave us the model for Obamacare?

 

[TragicMonkey]

Massachusetts? The state whose radical governor gave us the model for Obamacare?

To give Romney full credit, he also invented the dance move we know as The Worm.

 

[The Greater Fool]

Will tobacco now be part of the War on Drugs in this town?

"... there was one fatality when the no-knock warrant for possession with intent to sell tobacco and possession with intent to sell tobacco in a drug free school zone was served."

 

[NoahFence]

File under:

So what.

 

[Spindrift]

Will tobacco now be part of the War on Drugs in this town?

"... there was one fatality when the no-knock warrant for possession with intent to sell tobacco and possession with intent to sell tobacco in a drug free school zone was served."

The sale was banned, not the possession.

It's already illegal to sell tobacco without a license.

 

[Belz...]

Say hello to contraband.

 

[Spindrift]

Say hello to contraband.

Why?

 

[Beerina]

Will tobacco now be part of the War on Drugs in this town?

"... there was one fatality when the no-knock warrant for possession with intent to sell tobacco and possession with intent to sell tobacco in a drug free school zone was served."

So government wasted no time terminating people selling a largely legal product?

I am shocked! Shocked! Who could have predicted this?!?!? Do these police sleep like a baby, content in their rigjteousness of this non-religious behavior?

 

[Spindrift]

So government wasted no time terminating people selling a largely legal product?

I am shocked! Shocked! Who could have predicted this?!?!? Do these police sleep like a baby, content in their rigjteousness of this non-religious behavior?

I can't tell if you're serious or not, but you do realize that that quote was made up?

 

[Loss Leader]

Contraband tobacco would last for maybe a generation. Then it would disappear.

 

[Gallstones]

People will do as they do in dry counties, commute to the nearest shop that sells it.

 

[PhantomWolf]

People will do as they do in dry counties, commute to the nearest shop that sells it.

That or quit.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That or quit.

Quitting takes balls. Excuses for not quitting are a real killer.

 

[Belz...]

Why?

Making things illegal tends to create black market demand, and thus offer.

Contraband tobacco would last for maybe a generation. Then it would disappear.

You would think that. But then you'd think that people today wouldn't smoke anymore at all, either.

 

[WildCat]

Contraband tobacco would last for maybe a generation. Then it would disappear.

There's a huge market for it here. Especially with Indiana so close.

A lot of street gangs make as much selling bootleg cigarettes as they do other drugs now.

 

[This is The End]

Making things illegal tends to create black market demand, and thus offer.

But they're not making it illegal. They are making it so you cannot buy it in this town.

There have been plenty of towns that do not sell alcohol, that doesn't mean people do not drink in them or that it illegal to do so.

Also, I could be wrong but I would be surprised if there hasn't been a small town or two somewhere else in the US that hasn't already not allowed tobacco sales before...

The article plays it safe on that issue:

Though no clearinghouse keeps track, the advocates could not identify another community with such a prohibition.

 

[Beerina]

I can't tell if you're serious or not, but you do realize that that quote was made up?

No, but...do you think it won't be coming?

 

[Spindrift]

No, but...do you think it won't be coming?

No, I have no doubt it won't come to that.