ROYALSTON – The Board of Health voted at its meeting Monday, Aug. 11, to once again offer a single retail tobacco permit in the community.
After the Royalston General Store closed its doors a little over two years ago, the board voted to join a growing list of communities across the commonwealth to go tobacco-free, reducing the number of permits available from one to zero.
However, Winter and Helder Vieira bought the store in January of last year with plans to refurbish and reopen the establishment, considered vital to the economic and social vitality of Royalston, especially the South Village.
The Vieiras, along with members of the Royalston South Village Revitalization Committee (RSVRC), have argued that permission to sell tobacco products is crucial to the store’s viability.
At the meeting, the board entertained a motion that the single retail tobacco permit be revived. A stipulation was added that should a year pass without anyone applying for the permit, the number available would again revert to zero.
“The business doesn’t own the permit,” said Board of Health Chair Phil Leger. “They need to keep it active. So, should the time come when they’re no longer a business, then it gets turned back in. And if it’s inactive for a period of time, it (the number of permits) goes back to zero.”
The board ultimately approved re-establishing the retail tobacco permit, though the vote was not unanimous.
Board member Andre Crete, MPH RS, said, “I’m on this board for public health reasons. To amend the regulations and not stand behind them would be like taking my public health hat off. This doesn’t have anything to do with the general store. As designed, these (tobacco) products kill 50% of the people that use them. The manufacturers that make these products spend billions of dollars targeting children in the hope of addicting them. So, amending the regulations to allow these products to be sold in our community is like supporting the tobacco industry.”
Crete cited statistics indicating that tobacco kills more than seven million people each year, including 1.6 million non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke. The World Health Organization, she added, labels tobacco use an epidemic and one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.
“I can’t think of any public health rationale to amend the regulations,” Crete said. “We voted to have the revision passed to get to zero when we didn’t have a general store. I would be proud to live in a community that stood behind those efforts.”
Leger said he initially voted for the lowering the permit number to zero, a decision he still believes in.
“However, this is an exercise in political science versus public health,” Leger said. “Given our current political climate, in general, I don’t want to be blamed for the store not making it. So I, therefore, will be voting in favor of bringing the cap back to one.”
When Leger called for the roll call vote, he and board member Randy Divoll voted in favor of bringing back the tobacco permit. Crete responded, “Absolutely not.”
With the vote concluded and the revision approved, a smile appeared on the faces of Helder Viera and the half-dozen RSVRC members who had attended the meeting.
“It is now on the onus of the business owners to apply and meet the appropriate conditions, and that goes for any other permits needed for the store,” Leger said. “They need to get the application in, follow whatever requirements are required.”
Leger said that after the permit is initially granted, it must be renewed on an annual basis. The cost of a permit, which expires each Dec. 31, is $50. A fee of $25 is charged for late renewal applications.
Leger noted that revival of the permit does not mean it automatically go to the Vieiras.
“They have to have their state tax card, they have to secure a Massachusetts wholesaler, their product has to have a Massachusetts tax stamp on it,” he said. “There are certain other requirements we are not involved with.”