
New Bedford Increases Cigar Prices Under New Tobacco Regulations
NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — New regulations restricting tobacco sales in the city of New Bedford went into effect on January 1, and it has some shocked at how much they’re now paying for cigars.
A caller into WBSM in recent weeks has been concerned because the stores he frequents in New Bedford’s Far North End raised the price of a single Black & Mild cigar from 89 cents to $2.90.
It’s part of the New Bedford Department of Public Health’s new regulations focused on making “reasonable health regulations” based on the authority given to the New Bedford Board of Health by the laws of the Commonwealth.
“A healthier city is the New Bedford Board of Health’s ultimate goal, and the driving force behind its recent vote to institute a minimum pricing policy on cigars,” New Bedford Health Department Director Stephanie Sloan told WBSM.
Stickers being placed in locations in the city that sell cigars reveal the new “minimum pricing” required for cigar sales. A single cigar must cost at least $2.90, and any “original factory-wrapped package of two more cigars” must be priced at at least $5.80.
The rationale given for the price raising for cigars was “Whereas, cigars and cigarillos, can be sold in a single ‘dose;’ and enjoy a relatively low tax as compared to cigarettes.”
However, single-wrapped cigars are often sold for use as "blunt wraps," which the New Bedford Health Department defined as “Any product made wholly or in part from a tobacco product, manufactured or packaged with loose and removable leaves or section of a leaf, or as a hollow tube, that may be used by the consumer to wrap or contain loose tobacco or other fillers.”
READ MORE: The New Bedford Health Department's New Regulations on Tobacco Products
The new regulations not only call for the new minimum price, but also state that the Board of Health “may adjust from time to time the amounts specified” in the regulation “to reflect changes in the applicable Consumer Price Index.”
Sloan said other communities have already instituted similar minimum pricing requirements.
“Almost 200 cities and towns across Massachusetts have similar regulations, which are backed by research as a way to discourage young people from purchasing and using tobacco,” she said.
Classic Cigarette Vending Machines
Gallery Credit: Tommy Carroll
Discontinued, Rare, and Old Cigarette Brands
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