Legal Smoking Age is Going Up in Swampscott

If you’re 18 and looking to be cigarettes, you’ll soon be out of luck in Swampscott.

Last week the Swampscott Board of Health concluded months of deliberations with a vote to raise legal age to purchase nicotine and tobacco delivery products to 21, according to The Salem News, making it the the 85th community in the state to do so.

The board also voted to ban all smoking and use of nicotine products at Swampscott’s public beaches and public parks, NECN reported.

Currently, neighboring cities and towns, such as Lynn, maintain the 18-year-old age restriction, a situation that Swampscott retailers pointed out as opposition to the change during a public hearing in November.

Fran Peralta, of C & L Liquor Store, told the board that he expected customers would simply head to neighboring Lynn to purchase their tobacco products and the change would accomplish nothing but hurting his business, according to minutes from the Nov. 4 Board of Health meeting. He asked the board to wait until a possible statewide age change went into effect.

A statewide change in the age is under discussion and, on Dec. 17, Boston’s Public Health Commission voted to raise the legal age to 21 for retailers in the city. The change still needs to be approved by Mayor Marty Walsh.

The Salem News reported Swampscott’s new legal age will go into effect in June 2016.