Mass. town ends bid to ban tobacco sales
WESTMINSTER, Mass. — A proposal that would have made the town the first in the nation to ban all tobacco sales has gone up in smoke.
Westminster’s board of health voted 2-1 to drop the proposal at its regular meeting Wednesday, a week after rowdy opposition led board members to end a public hearing early.
Board members Ed Simoncini and Peter Munro moved and voted to kill the proposal.
Board chairman Andrea Crete voted to keep it under consideration.
The board had initially said the ban would help keep a variety of tobacco products from young people, but businesses strongly opposed it.