Maddox Tries to Raise Minimum Age to Purchase Cigarettes

If Jon Maddox gets his way next year, Massachusetts residents will have to be 21 in order to purchase cigarettes.

Maddox, who is running for the Cambridge School Committee, is currently collecting signatures to put a referendum on the state-wide ballot in 1996 which would raise the minimum age in the Bay State to purchase cigarettes from 18 to 21 and would force cigarettes to be nicotine-free.

"My rationale is that if we make it a little bit harder for teenagers to pick-up smoking as a habit, then we will be able to save a few lives down the road," Maddox said.

Under Maddox's proposed law, the penalty for selling tobacco products to under-age persons would increase from $50 to a fine of between $100 and $500.

In order to put an initiative on the ballot, organizers need to collect 65,000 signatures. This process is costly and can take a lot of time, according to Maddox.

Maddox said it will cost him at least $100,000 to gather the requisite signatures.

Maddox, who was one of the chief sponsors of Question 9, a ballot initiative last year which ended rent control in Cambridge, said that while his effort to get the referendum on the ballot might not be successful in 1996, he is confident that by 1998, the smoking initiative will be on the ballot.

"Next year will be a dry run. But with some financial backing, we hope to have it on the ballot in 1998," said Maddox, who is also the co-chair of the Small Property Owners Association in Cambridge.

Maddox, who is just beginning to collect signatures, said that ballot questions provide ordinary citizens the opportunity to shape policy in the state.

"Ballot initiatives are where individuals can get involved in public policy making in areas where the state legislature has not been active," Maddox said.

Maddox said the impetus behind the ballot petition was the death of his father from smoking-related illnesses.

"My father died from a heart attack at the age of 64...He was a life-long smoker," Maddox said.

Maddox said if his father had not been initially introduced to cigarettes at such an early age, he would have lived longer.

"That is the nature of the problem," Maddox said. "If you pick up the habit as a teenager, like my father did, then when you get to the age of 60, cigarettes have shortened your life by 10-15 years."

In his race this year for school committee, Maddox is stressing two main issues: raising the SAT scores at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School by stressing "traditional courses" in English and math, and reducing the school's budget.

Maddox's plan would cut the budget from $85 million to around $73 million by using early-retirement enticements and reducing the payroll for non-teaching personnel.

All six positions on the school committee will be filled in the upcoming November 7 elections.

Maddox is competing against a field of 11 candidates, including five incumbents.