Massachusetts tobacco restrictions being challenged

Public health advocates consider state and local authority critical to anti-tobacco efforts.

By Stephanie Stapleton, AMNews staff. May 7, 2001.

Washington -- The U.S. Supreme Court will be the staging area for the latest skirmish in the tobacco wars, as cigarette makers yet again square off against anti-smoking forces, this time over a Massachusetts state regulation restricting tobacco advertising.

The outcome will have broad implications for public health efforts at the state and local level to control tobacco marketing aimed at young people.

Massachusetts' limitations, which took effect in January 1999, do not address the actual content of advertisements but stipulate where billboards and other signage can be placed. For example, outdoor tobacco advertising is banned within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds. In addition, in-store ads cannot face outward if located near such facilities and must be at least five feet above the floor.

With Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly, the tobacco industry filed suit in federal court to block the rule, maintaining that the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act preempted state action. The tobacco firms also asserted that, on First Amendment grounds, the regulations are too broad and violate constitutional commercial speech protections by restricting truthful speech about a lawful product. A district court rejected this argument and the industry appealed.

Meanwhile, public health advocates argue that state and local government authority to restrict the location of advertising is crucial to efforts to protect young people from being tempted to start smoking.

"We're trying to limit the amount of advertising that kids see," said Thomas Houston, MD, director of the AMA's science and community health advocacy programs. "Think about the local 7-11 or corner market where children go to buy their soda and their bubble gum. The outside of these buildings shouldn't be plastered with tobacco advertising." [...]