Lynn sets new restrictions against tobacco

LYNN – There will be no more picking up a pack of cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, with your prescription when a new public health policy goes into effect Jan. 1, 2014.”Health care institutions won’t be allowed to sell tobacco products,” said city Health Agent MaryAnn O’Connor. “That’s Stop & Shop, Shaw’s ? any place with a pharmacy.”That also includes CVS and Walmart but O’Connor said the retail and drugstore chains shouldn’t be surprised by the pending changes.”They know it’s coming,” she said. “A lot of cities and towns around us have already done it.”Revere, Saugus, Peabody, Malden, Melrose, Middleton, Reading, Somerville, Wakefield and Haverhill have all instituted policies regulating the sale of e-cigarettes and many have already banned selling tobacco products in pharmacies as well, O’Connor noted.Lynn’s new regulations are aimed directly at restricting where and to whom the sale of tobacco and nicotine delivery products, which includes cigarettes, cigars, blunt wraps and e-cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery products, can take place.O’Connor said the problem with e-cigarettes is they are not FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved or regulated in any way. She said that opens up the question of what exactly is in e-cigarettes.The e-cigarettes are designed to help a person cut down on or quit smoking altogether. O’Connor admits that some people have reported success using the e-cigarettes but she said they can also have the opposite effect, serving as a gateway into smoking rather than out.”Kids end up trying them because they look cool and they get introduced to nicotine and work their way up,” she said.That trend worries O’Connor, who said smoking among many teens has become taboo.”We’ve made some good ground in keeping kids from smoking,” she said, adding that e-cigarettes pose a threat in that arena.The device that often looks like a ballpoint pen can be colorful and comes in flavors like cherry, vanilla, pineapple and coffee.”They market them for kids,” she said. “And there are no age restrictions.”After Jan. 1, 2014 the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18 will be prohibited. O’Connor said anyone selling the devices will also need a permit. It is not often that a store sells e-cigarettes without selling regular cigarettes but there are a few.”And they will have to have a permit so we know where they are and can monitor them,” she said.According to the new regulations, the sale of blunt wraps will be prohibited altogether. Blunt wraps, as defined in the regulations, is a hollow tube made of tobacco that is designed or intended to be filled with loose tobacco or other fillers.Handing out free samples of tobacco products will also get you in trouble as will selling loose cigarettes or having a roll-your-own machine in a store.Violators of any of the new rules and regulations will be hit with a $100 fine for a first offense. In the case of a second offense within a 36-month period the fine jumps to $200 and a seven-day suspension from selling tobacco products. A third violation within a 36-month period results in a $300 fine and a 30-day suspension.”If the FDA ever regulates e-cigarettes we can rethink this,” O’Connor said. “You can still buy cigarettes at corner stores, gas stations and variety stores, I think we still have a few of those.”