MONTAGUE — Customers won’t find nicotine pouches on the shelves of any Montague stores after March 1, 2025, following a Wednesday night decision by the Board of Health to revise the town’s existing tobacco sales restrictions.

Moving forward, nicotine pouches will only be allowed to be sold at adult-only retailers that sell tobacco, also called “tobacconists,” thus removing the products from convenience stores. Tobacconists require identification to be shown by anyone who enters the building, and patrons must be 21 or older to enter. Notably, there are no adult-only retailers selling tobacco in Montague at this time.

Chair Melanie Ames Zamojski and members Michael Nelson and Rachel Stoler voted unanimously to approve the restriction, citing health concerns, nicotine pouches being sold to minors and the fact that those seeking the product can still purchase it elsewhere in Franklin County or online. An Oct. 30 public hearing was held for people to express their thoughts on the proposed changes and was continued to Wednesday.

Peter Brennan, executive director for the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, spoke via Zoom against the nicotine pouch restriction.

“There’s really no logical reason to restrict these products,” Brennan said. “They’re very easy to buy, say, online, in the next town over, and I think that there’s some confusion and maybe some misinformation about what these products are.”

Brennan was the only member of the public present at Wednesday’s meeting to offer input on the restriction, and no retailers of nicotine pouches in Montague were present — something Nelson pointed out, saying that, “It is somewhat interesting that not a single retailer is here today or last time.”

Following the public hearing, each Board of Health member provided input on the proposed restriction. While Nelson recalled how previous tobacco sales restrictions over the years have prompted residents to cast “doom and gloom” on the situation due to the chance of a perceived economic crash in Montague, cleaning up and clarifying existing regulations has been the board’s main focus.

“So I personally think the regulation is spot-on,” he said.

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Both Ames Zamojski and Stoler agreed with Nelson, with Ames Zamojski adding that she was struck by the fact that minors were still being sold nicotine pouches and there is no evidence that the pouches are useful for quitting smoking. She did not elaborate on a specific instance of a minor being sold the pouches in Montague, and Public Health Director Ryan Paxton clarified in a follow-up interview that the Board of Health tracks sales to minors in town, but the youth tobacco sales checks are conducted by the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.

Following the vote, Nelson said he appreciated the public input from those in favor of and against the restriction.

“I don’t think you can make a valid decision without hearing both of those sides,” Ames Zamojski added.

Paxton said there was a concerted effort to reach out to retailers for their opinion on the proposed restriction. He said no direct commentary was received by the board from any retailers, but that notices were sent.

Following Wednesday’s hearing, Liana Pleasant, co-owner of Scottys, a convenience store at 66 Unity St., told the Greenfield Recorder she was aware of the nicotine pouch ban from the notice sent by the Board of Health, though she wasn’t able to attend either meeting. She felt that town officials did a good job of communicating their concerns about the safety of nicotine pouches.

Pleasant said she notices the popularity of the nicotine pouches, but that a ban wouldn’t immediately impact sales at Scottys. The store receives a small amount of the product each month, making it difficult to track purchases, but she feels it won’t make a large difference in profits.

“Tobacco really isn’t our biggest seller here. We’re sandwiches,” Pleasant said. “I don’t think it would have that much of a negative impact here for us, but I do know, just from customers that come in to get them, that a lot of the stores around here seem to do pretty well with them.”

Now that the restriction is in place, retailers have until March 1 to figure out what to do with their supply of nicotine pouches. In a follow-up interview, Paxton said the hope is for retailers to sell off the remaining products before March 1 or make plans to return them to distributors.

Additionally, the Board of Health approved an increase in cigar prices that raises the minimum from $5.00 to $5.90 for multi-pack cigars and $2.00 to $2.90 for single-pack cigars, along with a revised definition of “blunt wraps,” which was modified to include non-tobacco wraps. The board also approved adding a definition of a “bona fide purchaser” as someone who “exchanges value for property without any reason to expect irregularities in the transaction” and clarified fines for businesses that sell tobacco products to minors. A first offense would result in a $1,000 fine and a three-day suspension of their tobacco sales permit, a second offense within 36 months results in a $2,000 fine and a seven-day suspension, and a fine of up to $5,000 can be issued for a third or subsequent offense with 36 months as well as a 30-day suspension.

On the same night, the Belchertown Board of Health approved regulations prohibiting the sale of nicotine products within the town’s limits to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2004, making Belchertown the first municipality in western Massachusetts and the 11th in the state to pass the nicotine-free generation initiative.

The concept mirrors a proposal being put forward on the state level by Sen. Jason Lewis and Reps. Tommy Vitolo and Kate Lipper-Garabedian. The measure would permanently block residents who are not yet old enough to buy tobacco and nicotine products from ever doing so legally here in the future.

While Montague did not adopt the same initiative as Belchertown, it is another western Massachusetts municipality seeking tobacco restrictions with a focus on combating youth nicotine use. The nicotine-free generation regulation aims to reduce teenage access to nicotine products and get ahead of future nicotine products produced by tobacco companies.

A copy of Montague’s changes can be viewed at tinyurl.com/MontagueBoHTobacco.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.

An earlier version of this article inaccurately described the parties involved in tracking tobacco sales to minors. While the Montague Board of Health does keep track of tobacco sales to minors, the board is not conducting the enforcement checks at businesses. These checks are done by the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.