SSDP Submits Written Testimony in Massachusetts, Denouncing “Nicotine-Free Generation” Bills as a New Face of the War on Drugs
On July 14, 2025, Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) Executive Director Kat Murti was invited to testify virtually before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Health in opposition to H.2562 and S.1568—bills that would ban the sale of all nicotine products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2006, and have been jointly titled “An Act to create a nicotine free generation.”
Unfortunately, the hearing stretched over five hours, ultimately running out of time before all invited speakers—like Kat—could testify. But, though Kat was not able to deliver her remarks orally, her written testimony was submitted into the official record, ensuring SSDP’s perspective was heard.
In her testimony, Kat warned that these bills represent a dangerous new front in the failed War on Drugs, cloaked in the language of public health. “While we share your commitment to reducing the harms of nicotine and preventing addiction, these bills ignore decades of public health data and represent the same failed thinking that has defined the War on Drugs for over a century,” she wrote. “They do nothing to address the root causes of nicotine dependence and nothing to expand evidence-based prevention, cessation, or harm reduction services.”
Why SSDP Supports Nicotine Harm Reduction
Students for Sensible Drug Policy advocates for evidence-based harm reduction approaches to nicotine and other substances instead of prohibition.
Harm reduction saves lives. It empowers people with accurate information, access to safer options, and the autonomy to make the best decisions for themselves.
Prohibition has never successfully eliminated demand for a product, but it has always driven people to criminalized, unregulated, and often unsafe sources. SSDP opposes prohibitionist approaches to nicotine because they don’t work—and they put people at risk.
As Kat wrote in her testimony, “The FDA’s treatment of the U.S. vaping market has already resulted in as much as 98% of vaping products sold in the U.S. being illicit. If passed, this bill will worsen the situation, while wasting resources that could be better spent on proven harm reduction and education initiatives.”
Nicotine Free Generation laws represent a disturbing step backward into the failed, punitive approaches of the drug war—an approach that has devastated countless lives and communities, particularly those already marginalized.
Nicotine is not without risk, but young people deserve honest information, safer options, and support, not criminalization.
Bans like H.2562 and S.1568 are not just impractical; they are dangerous. They ignore decades of evidence showing that prohibition fosters unregulated markets and inequitable enforcement while failing to meaningfully reduce use. Harm reduction—like access to safer nicotine products such as vaping, education about relative risks, and support for those who want to quit—is the only proven path forward.
Failed Drug War Logic Resurfaces
The hearing attracted heated debate, with opponents, including small business owners, retailers, and public health lawyers, highlighted several key concerns, including:
- Criminalization of adults who experiment or use nicotine—a departure from public health best practices.
- The risk of shadow markets and enforcement challenges, echoing critiques seen worldwide when similar bans are applied .
- The bills’ reliance on a year-of-birth cutoff (2006) as an arbitrary, evolving legal barrier that complicates retail and consumer clarity.
These points reflect broader resistance seen in Massachusetts towns that implemented earlier nicotine-free generation policies, where critics warned of discrimination by birth year and lack of consumer choice .
Meanwhile, many supporters of the bills relied on familiar and debunked drug war talking points—like the gateway drug theory, claiming that nicotine use leads to other drug use (heroin was mentioned several times!), and blaming nicotine for young people performing poorly in school, being rejected by colleges, or dropping out entirely.
Kat’s testimony explicitly addressed this:
“Proponents of these bills have argued that youth use of nicotine contributes to poor school performance, college rejection, and dropping out. These claims echo the long-discredited gateway drug theory and ignore the social, economic, and educational inequities that actually drive these outcomes. Criminalizing young people for the choices they make about their own bodies will not improve these outcomes—it will only exacerbate harm.”
What Happens Next?
Over the coming weeks, the Joint Committee will review all submitted materials before issuing recommendations on whether H.2562 and S.1568 should advance.
Although Kat was unable to speak during the hearing itself due to time constraints, SSDP’s written testimony now stands as a clear record of opposition rooted in public health and human rights.
SSDP remains committed to fighting for sensible, humane drug policies that prioritize harm reduction and reject the failed strategies of the past.
