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Excerpts from: Controls on teen smoking tighten
Starting April 1, buyers must be 19

By Rhonda Stewart Boston Globe [03/09/03]
 
On April 1, Needham will become the first community in the state to raise the age at which teenagers may buy tobacco products from 18 to 19. Under a new Board of Health regulation, the age will be raised each of the next three years so that by 2005 tobacco purchasers must be 21 or older.
''It is a novel concept, certainly in Massachusetts. If we can keep the legal age high enough so there aren't kids in high school who can buy for younger kids, that might go a long way to keeping kids from picking up the habit, '' said Janet Lilienthal, former director of the tobacco control program for Needham, Dover, Medfield, and Westwood. . .