Confusion Surrounds Worcester’s Newly Proposed Smoking Ordinance

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

As the city of Worcester works to strengthen the smoking ordinance in the city to deter businesses from selling tobacco products to minors, a lot of confusion is being created as to how exactly the city will make the adjustments.

The current language written by the city has created more questions than answers about the proposed changes, creating confusion among Worcester city councilors and others throughout the city.

“I have found that the item is very confusing,” said City Councilor Gary Rosen. “It seems like the intention was to target businesses that sell legal tobacco products to minor and that we want to make it a criminal offense.”

The Worcester City Council asked for a rewrite of the current language in order to curb confusion and to correctly convey the recommendations of the committee on public health and human services, which is to explore options to increase the fine on businesses to create a larger impact.

Setting the Record Straight

City Councilor Sarai Rivera was vocal at the previous city council meeting, expressing that the language must be changed in order to stop the confusion about the wanted and needed changes to Worcester’s smoking ordinance.

Additionally, Rivera is looking for anything that the city can do to increase the fine in the city. Currently, first offenses are $100, with the second increasing to $200 and the third increasing to $300. With checks currently only once per year, a larger fine would help to create a better diversion to businesses.

“I want to be really clear that we are looking to increase the fine, its not on the individual, its on the business,” said Rivera. “I would ask that this goes back to the city manager to get the right wording; the way it is worded right now doesn’t seem to be getting the point across in what we were trying to agree on in the subcommittee meeting.”

Looking for a Bigger Impact

The goal of the changes to the ordinance is to create a larger impact to the businesses throughout Worcester that are selling tobacco products to minors.

Looking at Boston as a potential model for improvements, the hope is to get a fine much closer to $1,000, something that may require special legislation to pass in the city.

“The idea was to change the legislation so that the fine has a larger impact,” said City Councilor Michael Gaffney. “$100, if you are only being checked once a year, is not going to do much. If you increase the fine then it not only becomes a deterrent, but the additional money goes back into the pool to pay for additional spot checks.”