Newton North High School senior Tija Brown first heard of Newton’s new tobacco ordinance—which will prohibit anyone born after March 1, 2004, from purchasing tobacco and nicotine products in town—from two of her teachers arguing about it in AP Statistics.  

Brown, who serves as a teacher’s assistant for the course, was passing out worksheets about Massachusetts’ November ballot question on legalizing psychedelics. One of Brown’s teachers was thrilled that something was being done to prevent young people from getting addicted to tobacco, and the other claimed people’s ability to make their own decisions was their constitutional right. 

The Newton City Council approved the ordinance Jan. 21 by a 19-4 vote. Newton joins several other communities that have passed generational tobacco bans, including Brookline, Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield and Winchester.

The goal: make tobacco and nicotine less and less accessible. Because the ordinance bars anyone born after a specific date from buying the products, it will eventually become impossible to do so in Newton. In 2064, there could be 60-year-olds asking their 61-year-old friends to buy a cigarette for them, like they’re college freshmen trying to get into a club with a fake ID.

While Brown talked about the ordinance with her teachers, she hasn’t heard much about it from her peers. However, she supports it.

Tobacco is “very addictive, and can be addictive super fast, and I would say people start getting addicted at younger ages,” said Brown, who hopes to study biology on a pre-med track in college. “Banning them from buying it at the younger ages is very smart so it prevents the younger people from ever developing an addiction.”

Nine out of 10 adults who are addicted to nicotine started before they were 18, according to the American Cancer Society. Because young people’s brains are still developing, it is much easier for them to get addicted to nicotine.

At Newton North, Brown said she doesn’t see many people smoking cigarettes; students gravitate toward Juul products, which contain “nicotine salts from tobacco leaves,” according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. One Juul pod has roughly the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, according to the National Library of Medicine. A Juul pod lasts roughly 200 puffs — anywhere between a few hours to one day depending on the user. 

Sophia Keohane, a 20-year-old Newton native, remembers exactly when vaping became all the rage. “It was kind of like ice cream,” she said. 

“By the time we started learning about the dangers of tobacco, people were already vaping,”  Keohane said. 

While Keohane does not smoke or use tobacco, she doesn’t think the ordinance will have its intended effect because young people can go to neighboring towns to buy cigarettes or vape products. She sees the ban as “another example of the legal system trying to make up for things that should be compensated with education.”

“After a certain point, it becomes a little ridiculous, and I think we need to start focusing on educating children and telling them what is OK for their health and best support them there and then allow them to make informed decisions after,” Keohane said.

Brown said her tobacco education was limited to discussions in eighth and ninth grade health class, by which point students who were vaping were already addicted because of the high nicotine content in those products. She barely remembers the lessons and thinks “they could definitely get better.”    

Tobey Lowe, a 22-year-old graduate of Newton North who works as a quality assurance coordinator at a dietary supplements company, said he feels “half and half” about the ordinance. While he believes the tobacco industry is “criminal” in how it targets people’s addictions, he isn’t sure this ordinance is the most effective way to curtail that.

Lowe, rather, thinks “you’d have to go after the companies themselves” and educate young people better on the dangers of tobacco in order to limit its use. 

“Targeting an issue like this can’t be so localized,” Lowe said. “People can drive even 10 minutes away and get the product.”

Michael Sheen, the owner of Lake Smoke & Vape in Newton, shares Lowe’s sentiment. While Sheen does not think the ordinance will have a significant impact on his business—most of his customers are over 30—he worries that the ordinance will only increase “black market” nicotine sales, which he feels are more dangerous.

Sheen has been in the e-cigarette business since 2013 and went into it with the intention of “getting people off the cigarette.” He said he “firmly believes” e-cigarettes, while not ideal, are safer than traditional nicotine products.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, e-cigarette aerosol tends to have fewer harmful chemicals than traditional cigarettes but still contain nicotine and other cancer-causing chemicals. The long-term effects of e-cigarettes are still being studied.

A Newton resident himself, Sheen first heard about the ordinance through word of mouth from fellow smoke shop owners. He was frustrated that the City Council didn’t send them a notice or give them a chance to discuss the ordinance. 

“People that are going to want to smoke are going to smoke,” Sheen said. “At least when they come in here, I can talk to them and try to get them off of cigarettes.”

This story is part of a partnership between the Newton Beacon and the Boston University Department of Journalism.