Cohasset, Mass. Maintains Tobacco Purchase Age

The Cohasset Board of Health took on several tobacco related issues at its meeting earlier this week and while the three member board voted to take tobacco products out of pharmacies and restrict the sale of e-cigarettes, the minimum age to purchase tobacco products will remain at 18.

Board member Robin Lawrence told the Cohasset Mariner and Patriot Ledger that she was against the age hike as a matter of principle, saying that if people can serve in the military at 18, they should be able to legally buy tobacco products. Fellow board member Elizabeth Kirk added that “while I recognize the merits of raising the age to 21, I don’t feel like I’m in the position to stand in front of the town and say this is what the town should do.”

The proposal called for the minimum age to purchase tobacco to products to be raised to 21 years of age. Numerous cities and towns in Massachusetts have raised the minimum purchase age to either 19 or 21, including Malden, which recently put the age to buy tobacco on par with that to buy alcohol.

The board also voted to restrict the sale of e-cigarettes to those persons at least 18 years of age.

Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County with approximately 7,500 residents. It is approximately 15 miles south east of Boston on the state’s eastern coast. The neighboring town of Braintree, Mass., which is also part of Norfolk County, is scheduled to take a vote to raise the age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21 on June 19.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.