Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em: Westminster Won’t Ban Tobacco
There’s a time and place for everything, but that isn’t the case for a small Massachusetts town that could have become the first municipality in the nation to ban tobacco sales.
The Westminster Board of Health withdrew its proposal to ban all tobacco sales on Wednesday after receiving criticism and outrage from the audience at a meeting last week.
Board of health members Peter Munro and Ed Simoncini voted against the ban while Chairwoman Andrea Crete voted to keep the proposal for consideration, reported the Boston Globe.
“It is obvious the town is against it and therefore I am against it,’’ Simoncini told the Globe of the proposal.
According to the Globe, more than 1,000 residents of the town signed a petition opposing the ban since being introduced to the public on Oct. 27.
The board held a public meeting at an elementary school on Nov. 12 that drew a 500-person crowd, the majority of which loudly voiced opposition to the ban. Audience members were so vehement in their disapproval that the meeting was shut down not long after it began.
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