Board of Aldermen 04-09-2019 Page 7
products. You are also going to hear, and you’ve heard this argument about well you can go to Hudson,
you can go to Merrimack. You know, | understand that argument, be can also be the first, we are the
second largest City in the State and we can be the first of those two large cities to prohibit this and we can
be the first then to lead a movement to hopefully make this a State-Wide initiative. So | do hope that you
will consider supporting this legislation as it is written or as it might be amended. Thank you very much
Jon Shaer Good evening everyone. So | am personally not a resident of Nashua but | am here
representing the convenience stores. | am the Executive Director of the New England Convenient Store
Association and | have a number of members specifically Shell at 190 Amherst Street. So as | said | am
the Executive Director of the New England Convenient Store Association. And what we have is we have a
vape problem, we do, we clearly have a vape problem nobody is questioning that. Nobody is questioning
the harmful effects of Nicotine or JUUL or any of that — granted. What we are here tonight to talk about is
whether or not raising the age to 21 is an effective policy. Is it going to solve the problem, balanced with
what hardships is it going to create for both adults here as well as the businesses here. 20.8% of high
school students, in the latest National Youth Tobacco Survey are vaping, are using E-Cigarettes. Cigars,
cigarettes, smokeless, have all fallen since 2011.
So the logic here is if an 18 year old, 18 year olds are still in high school largely and therefore raising the
age essentially blocks that pipeline. | guess that makes sense logically, but the logic is flawed because it
isn’t an effective obstacle because it doesn’t address really important loopholes such as on-line access,
cross border sales or even the social sourcing frankly that it seeks to plug. In fact at the State SB248 which
was a similar bill to raise the age to 21, our Association did not oppose and we didn’t oppose it because it
was State-Wide. We do oppose this because an individual City or Town for that matter does not effectively,
it will not effectively do what it seeks to do because there are just too many other loopholes, it doesn’t take
much to go to another town to buy these products. And someone earlier said about the black market, it will
happen. What it also will do is it will harm the convenience stores, my members, because these sales are
now going to be exported to these other towns.
And it is not just the tobacco sales, it is the bread, it is the milk, it is the gas, it is everything else, it is the
market basket as we refer to it. So this Board, which is certainly has the people of Nashua in mind, should
also | hope have the businesses of Nashua in mind. The people that hire and invest in their community and
that business will be exported. | should say retailers do stand with tobacco, there is a 97% compliance rate
in this City among retailers, they are doing their job. What you may not know, maybe you do maybe you
don’t, but the State took in $245 million dollars in tobacco related revenue in the latest fiscal year; spent
$140,000.00 on tobacco control programs, a paltry $140,000.00. No wonder we have an epidemic. | mean
| do a lot of cities and towns all over New England and often | hear “kids don’t know it is addictive, parents
don’t know what to look for’. | have no doubt, | have no doubt — when New Hampshire and other States
are spending so little on education and cessation programs.
So here we are, let’s raise the age and let’s in effect punish the retailers and | know that isn’t the direct
reason for doing it but it is effectively what happens, when there are alternatives. And finally, and
somebody mentioned it earlier, this Ordinance does not address use and possession. Someone said there
is no teeth and that’s true. So if all we are going to do is raise the age and continue to point the finger at
the those that are selling it and not point the finger at those people that are using it, possessing it and using
it when they shouldn’t be, what are we telling our youth? Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. If you get ‘em great,
smoke ‘em. | see Officers in the audience; they wouldn’t be able to do a thing. So | leave you with that.
Happy to answer any questions.
Vice President O’Brien
Thank you, we don’t have a question period but thank you sir for comments.
David Garofalo Hello my name is David Garofalo, 15 Spit Brook Road here in Nashua, New Hampshire. |
own and operate Two Guys Smoke Shop. At Two Guys Smoke Shop we don’t sell cigarettes, we don’t sell
vape, we don’t sell chewing tobacco; we sell cigars. But we are grouped in with this, with all other tobacco.
