Senate prez Rosenberg mulls new tobacco law

A bill that would raise the state’s legal age for using tobacco products from 18 to 21 is gaining “momentum” in the legislature and could become a reality, state Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg told Herald Radio yesterday.

“There is growing momentum,” Rosenberg told “Morning Meeting” hosts Hillary Chabot and Tony Cignoli when asked about the bill, which is before a committee.

“The Senate passed it last term, the House did not, but I am told a very substantial number of both House members and Senate members are now cosponsors of that and there seems to be some momentum,” he said.

Rosenberg said economic factors, as opposed to public health concerns, are driving more legislators to support the bill as an increasing number of communities have passed local ordinances raising the age to 21.

“When you have as many communities that have done it on their own as a matter of local regulation, then you start creating competitive situations in the marketplace,” Rosenberg said. “And once that happens, everybody starts saying ‘wait a minute, we may need to level the playing field.’ ”

The Amherst Democrat added, “the people who really care about this are doing it for health reasons, but the added momentum comes from the economic impact.”

The bill passed the Senate a little more than a year ago by a resounding 32-2 margin, and Gov. Charlie Baker has said he supports the concept of raising the legal minimum age to buy tobacco.

Although the measure did not pass the House, Rosenberg said the age increase is “a policy whose time, I think, has come.”

Also yesterday, Rosenberg weighed in on the controversial common law that allowed former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez to have his murder conviction thrown out because he committed suicide in his prison cell before his appeals could be exhausted. In the wake of Hernandez’s suicide, the Senate President said he consulted with state Sen. William Brownsberger, a lawyer who heads the judiciary committee, and found the law is unlikely to be changed.

“He said ‘you don’t make a major change in law of this significance based on any one case that’s sort of just popped up,’ he said, ‘ you have to be very thoughtful, very careful.’ My initial reaction was ‘it doesn’t sound like we ought to make the change,’ but I wasn’t sure because I wasn’t a lawyer and he said he would not recommend it.”