By Nick LoConte
The Winthrop Board of Health is considering raising the legal purchasing age of tobacco products in Winthrop from 18 to 21. I oppose this change for many reasons and I hope my fellow Board members will reconsider moving in this direction.
First of all, let me state clearly that smoking tobacco is terrible for your health and, I strongly discourage anyone from doing so. But that is different from taking away the rights of our residents to make that choice themselves.
For an 18 year old Winthrop resident to join the military, fight for his or her country overseas, and return home to vote, only to be denied the right to choose whether or not to buy a pack of cigarettes because two members of the Board of Health say so is just not right to me.
There is also a negative economic impact, especially to the very same small businesses that Winthrop is depending on to grow and thrive if we hope to better fund our schools or repair our roads without further raising property taxes.
I am also very uncomfortable taking rights away from any subgroup of adults while leaving them in place for others. This is especially true for groups that do not have the social or economic power to fight back, as an 18 to 20 year old just beginning in their career surely is. What other subgroup of adults does the Board of Health know better than and should take away their rights? It is too easy to contemplate restricting the rights of other people so long as one’s own rights aren’t also on the chopping block.
Of course we all want our fellow citizens to be as healthy as possible but the way to do this is through education not the government taking rights away. The number one cause of death for an 18 to 20 year old is in a car accident. Should the Board of Health restrict 18 to 20 year olds from driving in cars too? We can’t force people to live their lives in a bubble because it’s healthier and safer.
I was very disappointed recently to hear a fellow board member attacked me in a Letter to the Editor by taking my words out of context. Winthrop is faced with too many important issues for our officials to be taking political shots at those who disagree with them and is the exact sort of silliness to which I was referring. This sort of old politics is not the way to solve our problems. Instead, the Board of Health ought to work together to face the real issues in town such as the opioid addiction crisis.
(Nick LoConte is the chairman of the Board of Health)