Board of Aldermen 02-19-2019 Page 9
But first let me thank President Wilshire for the Communication this morning so that a lot more people didn’t
show up when they really didn’t need to.
| do want to take this opportunity because it is my experience that by the time this does come back to the
Board, the general board a vote is often taken quickly and so there is very little time for consideration. So, |
said — hey I’ll take the drive up and I'll give you guys my pitch and you'll have opportunity to consider it as
the committee is considering the same.
As you likely know Senate Bill 248 is currently at the State House right now being debated as to whether or
not the State should raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21. My Association chose
to not take a position on that Bill largely because while we think that there should be a nation-wide age if
the age is going to be increased we believe that if not nation-wide that is acceptable for a state to adopt
one age but what we cannot be silent on is if when cities and towns decide to do it on their own as it
creates what we refer to as a patchwork of regulations which from a retailers perspective is an absolute
nightmare particularly for those members of mine that have stores throughout the State, especially in
regions or rather cities and towns that border one another.
Likewise, for adults that live in a community they can go to one community or another where the ages are
different. The problem with a City or Town doing it on their own is it really doesn’t impact what it is that you
are trying to impact; which is to reduce use among minors. It is not a big deal to go to a neighboring
community. So in terms of meaningfully reducing the access it is really not doing that but you can count on
it doing is exporting sales both for those products that you are raising the age on but also what we also
what we refer to in retail as the market basket so not just a pack of cigarettes or an e-cigarette pen but
instead all of those other products that would also be bought along with that during those visits.
So, while it isn’t going to meaningfully do anything to reduce the access for those underage what it will do is
it will harm those businesses that are complying within Nashua. And speaking of complying there is a 98%
compliance rate in this City which is remarkable. This information is available on the FDA compliance
inspection report, you can check it out for not just your city but any city for that matter and | would argue
that 98% is exemplary. So instead really what we should be doing is congratulating retailers for a job well
done.
If this is about deciding whether or not an 18-year-old or a 19-year-old or a 20-year-old is an adult, I’m not
your guy. | can’t speak to that, everyone I’m sure has an opinion on that but if this is about trying to keep
these products out of the hands of 18, 19- and 20-year old’s, because or because you believe that they are
re-selling them say to 17, 16, 15-year old’s, then | would argue that doing this is not the right approach.
So, | hate it when people say, no,no,no and don’t come in with suggestions. So here are some suggestions
for you as an alternative to consider that won’t harm retailers. The first is many of my members are
participate in the “We Card” program. These are training programs, not every retailer does participate in
‘We Card’ in programs. | wish | had the ability to mandate that every retailer participate in these programs
but they are not all members of my association which is my problem | will figure that out. But that certainly
should be a requirement they are wonderful training programs. | did it myself, it takes a long time, it is
worthwhile.
The second thing that some of my members do that | would argue is a best practice which is to limit the
number of e-cigarettes, | know this is mostly about e-cigarettes so limit the number of e-cigarettes or limit
the number of any tobacco product that any one person can buy at a visit so if it is 2 units or 3 units,
whatever it is, that’s not a redistribution that is probably somebody using it for their own personal
consumption. When somebody goes in and buys 5, 6 or 7, that is a wholesale business, right.
So finally, the other thing | would suggest is having a lower tolerance policy, less tolerance for mistakes. If
somebody is going to make a mistake and somebody is going to sell to a minor or if you catch somebody
re-selling to a minor come down hard, it will have an impact.
