CONWAY – The town will have had a seven-month head start by the time Massachusetts raises to 21 its the minimum age for buying tobacco products on Dec. 31.
The Conway Board of Health voted unanimously in May on the new regulation in an attempt to curb tobacco use among young people. The regulation is not far reaching, however, as Bakers Country Store at 101 River St. is the only tobacco retailer in town. Store owner Helen Baker said tobacco sales are not a large part of her business, though she has been unaffected by the regulation anyway. She sells cigarettes and chewing tobacco.
“The ones I do sell are to older people,” she said, adding that the average person who buys tobacco in her store is probably in their 40s. “Most people have quit.”
Baker said she started working at the business in 1972, when it was Weeks Luncheonette under the ownership of her mother. She said she bought the business and turned it into Bakers Country Store in 1985 and tobacco use in general has declined drastically in the past 33 years.
“All my regulars used to smoke. But they don’t smoke anymore,” she said. “I don’t smoke and never have. (The regulation) doesn’t bother me at all.”
In fact, she said, she is pleased the minimum age will soon be raised across the state.
“It’s more confusing if it’s town by town,” Baker said.
The minimum age is 18 in Ashfield and 21 in Deerfield and Whately.
Virginia Knowlton, a 40-year clerk of the Conway Board of Health and a member for the roughly the past month, said the board adopted the regulation because its members thought it was the right measure to take.
“The state wouldn’t do anything (about raising the purchasing age). That was our sole reason for doing that whole thing – to make sure that our age was up there where we thought it was better,” she said Tuesday, adding that she believes younger people will now be less tempted to try to buy cigarettes and similar products. She also said it will be more difficult for someone who is 13 years old to pretend to be old enough to buy tobacco if the minimum age is 21.
The regulation in Conway, however, is not reflected on the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards’ online map of tobacco controls by town.
In July, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill making Massachusetts the latest state to require people be at least 21 to buy tobacco or vaping products. California, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey and Oregon have similar bans. The law also bans the sale of tobacco products by any pharmacy that offers health care services.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.