Amid pandemic, industry group requests delay in flavored tobacco ban
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The industry group that represents convenience stores is asking the Legislature and governor to delay the implementation of restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products.
The COVID-19 public health emergency has delayed a lot of things already, and now the industry group that represents convenience stores is asking the Legislature and governor to delay the implementation of restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products, including mint and menthol cigarettes.
The state's law restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products, including mint and menthol cigarettes, to smoking bars for on-premise consumption is set to take effect June 1, but the New England Convenience Stores & Energy Marketers Association pressed Gov. Charlie Baker in a pair of letters this month to use his executive authority to delay the ban for one year.
NECSEMA said convenience stores are doing everything they can to stay in business through the COVID-19 pandemic but that it estimates 200 stores will be permanently closed by the end of May. The group said overall sales are down 30 to 50 percent, gasoline sales are down 60 percent and Lottery sales are down 20 percent.
If those stores have to stop selling menthol cigarettes on June 1, NECSEMA said it will be about 800 stores that close within a month or two.
"I am gravely concerned about the large number of convenience store causalities the impending law, coupled with the Covid-related financial fallout, will have on our industry and the communities they serve," NECSEMA Executive Director Jonathan Shaer wrote in the organization's latest letter.
Smoking or vaping may put people into a higher-risk category for COVID-19 and could make infections worse, officials including Attorney General Maura Healey and Massachusetts General Hospital have cautioned. And supporters argue that's exactly why the state should not delay the effective date of the new restrictions.
"The middle of a lung disease pandemic is absolutely the worst time to delay necessary action to protect our kids from addictive tobacco products that harm the lungs. Now more than ever, Massachusetts' priority should be to protect the health and lungs of kids, not the special interests of those who want to continue selling flavored tobacco products that addict, sicken and kill far too many," Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement. He added, "Convenience stores should not be allowed to exploit a lung health crisis to push products that harm your lungs -- especially products often sold in kid-friendly flavors like mint, menthol, tropical fusion, cherry and banana smash."
Shaer argued that implementation of the flavor ban should be delayed one year, not indefinitely, and said that pause would lead to "simply business as usual for one year longer than planned."
"As we see it, the downside of not delaying the ban is far worse than the downside of delaying the ban for one year," he wrote.
Shaer said NECSEMA member businesses "fully expect Massachusetts menthol, mint and wintergreen customers to travel to bordering states, especially (New Hampshire), to purchase these products" if the restrictions take effect June 1, which he argued would limit the effectiveness of social distancing during the pandemic.
"I am equally concerned about 300,000+ menthol, mint and wintergreen tobacco customers traveling out of state to purchase products illegal in Massachusetts at a time we should be doing all we can to discourage travel anywhere," Shaer wrote to the governor.
Last year, as lawmakers debated and passed the flavored tobacco ban amid a different public health emergency, NECSEMA was one of the main sources of opposition and said that the excise and sales taxes on menthol cigarettes and mint/wintergreen/menthol smokeless tobacco total about $228.45 million annually.
In one of the group's recent letters, Shaer acknowledged that his organization worked to prevent the law from taking effort but said that is not his group's sole motivation.
"I am well-aware this may be viewed as opportunism given our strong opposition to this law, but the dire consequences which await my members on June 1, if action is not taken, deprives me the luxury of waiting for the ideal time to make a more delicate appeal for action that can mitigate the wholesale destruction of potentially viable businesses," he wrote.
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