Board of Aldermen 05-14-2019 Page 21
“well you know you’ve got to figure out when did the ordinance pass and when did these people
become 18”. But the way it’s worded it makes it very clear. So just to remind you in New Hampshire,
if you are 21 you get a Driver's License that is horizontal. If you are under 21 the Driver's License is
vertical. So this was designed for liquor, for alcohol so that store clerks can know right away whether
someone is 21 or not.
The same would apply here, store clerks would be able to recognize whether someone is 21 or not, if
they are under 21 then they can look and see were they born before June 30", 2001 or not. It’s a
simple matter. The other amendment is to in recognition of something that Alderman Gathright spoke
to me about and that was her concern that this could be used unfairly to minorities, that it would be an
excuse for the Police to get the young people involved and subjecting them to citations, to fines which
they may not be able to afford and it would discriminatory against them. So | added something that is
in the current State Law and that someone under 21 instead of paying a fine, they can be required, as
an alternative, to participate in an education program regarding tobacco products, e-cigarettes or liquid
nicotine or a program for the cessation of the use of tobacco products, e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine or
the completion of community service as an alternative to the fines. So this was an attempt at
accommodating her concern to allow rather than having to pay a fine, you know, there were some
alternatives here that don’t involve the paying of money.
So | would recommend that we adopt this amended version. The arguments that I’ve heard and | don’t
deny that everybody is speaking with the best of intentions and speaking what they truly believe. But
when people talk about how we shouldn't do this just in Nashua that we should seek a statewide
solution, | agree | think it would be better if the state raised the age to 21. But the State hasn’t and at
the Committee meeting, not all of you were there, but at the Committee meeting | told you that | ran
into Donna Soucy, the President of the Senate who is on the Senate Commerce Committee that
considered a Senate Bill to raise the age to 21. | had testified in favor of that and that Committee
decided to retain it in Committee, they didn’t send it to the Senate Floor. | asked her why they had
done that and she told me because the law currently allows cities and towns to do this, and that some
had done it, Dover, Keene, Newmarket, that they were interested in seeing whether other cities and
towns would do this; whether there was support for raising the age to 21. So they are waiting for us,
they are waiting for us to see what we do. | think that if we adopted this it would encourage them to
enact a Statewide solution.
The other argument that I’ve heard and people have very sincerely said to me that just doing this in
Nashua isn’t going to do anything because people can just go to Hudson and buy it. And that’s true;
but just even though people can do, even though people could go to a different town and purchase this
product, a lot of them won’t. And where this has been enacted in other parts of the country and not
only States, we are now up to 13 States that have adopted this Statewide. Vermont is about to do it; it
will be 14 soon. Maine has done it; Massachusetts has done it. Most of those States started with a
City or a Town in the State doing it. There are | think it over 250 communities across the country who
have adopted and have raised the age to 21 just in their town. And wherever it has been done, it has
had the effect of reducing tobacco use among, not only young people, but of everyone.
If the young people don’t start, if it is more difficult for them to obtain it and they don’t start then they
are probably not going to pick it up later in life. They are probably never going to become addicted.
So the town of Needham, you’ve heard me say this before was the first town to do it. When they
enacted this, all of the towns around them, you could still purchase it at 18. But when they did it, they
were able to reduce the use of tobacco at Needham High School by 47% and since then, that was 14
years ago that they did it, they just issued a report showing that the numbers of people who smoke in
Needham are much less than the rest of Massachusetts. The hospitalizations due to lung cancer are
much less than the rest of Massachusetts; the deaths due to lung cancer are much less than the rest
of Massachusetts; complications from women smoking during pregnancy is much less than the rest of
Massachusetts.
