“A few people asked about the product, and my policy is to offer it to whoever wants to buy it,” Hasan said.
E-cigarettes are currently a topic of controversy in Boston. The city's Public Health Commission has proposed an amendment that would impose the same restrictions on the sale of e-cigarettes as on tobacco products-- prohibiting sales to individuals under the age of 18 and requiring that the product be kept behind the counter. The amendment also would ban e-cigarettes in workplaces, as well as restaurants and bars.
At least two other Massachusetts communities, South Hadley and North Attleboro, already regulate the sale of e-cigarettes, according to the Boston commission.
Hasan and other local convenience store owners say the regulations will have little impact on them. People buying e-cigarettes are mostly middle-aged individuals trying to quit, not teenagers looking to start smoking, they said. They already ask for I.D.s and said that, to their knowledge, minors have never tried to purchase e-cigarettes in their stores.
Hasan and the other managers said most of their e-cigarette customers are trying to quit smoking or find alternatives to cigarettes.
“If they’re in their late-twenties or mid-thirties and buy them, it’s not like they want to start smoking,” Hasan said.
Symphony Market II is one of an estimated 13 shops in Boston that sell e-cigarettes, according to a survey by the Northeastern University School of Law Public Health Legal Clinic. Three shops are located in Dorchester, two are in Fenway, one is in North Station, one is in Charlestown, two are near Allston, two are in Roxbury and two are in Mission Hill. The majority of the shops are convenience stores.
Hasan said he views the proposed regulation as "very positive," because he does not like the idea of teenagers "smoking the e-cigarette and getting hooked on nicotine."
