smoking ban westminster
© Christopher EvansBIG DRAG: Customer Bert Leandres, left, discusses the proposed ban on tobacco sales in Westminster with Brian Vincent, owner of Vincent’s Country Store, who says the move would hurt local businesses.
A public meeting on a central Massachusetts town's proposed first-in-the-nation ban on tobacco and nicotine sales has ended early because officials say the crowd was getting too unruly to continue.

The three-member Westminster Board of Health, which proposed the ban, was escorted out by police Wednesday night. The board had asked the crowd to calm down to hear dozens signed up to speak.

Hundreds of people, many opposed to the ban, packed a school auditorium for the hearing. Some, carrying flags and protest signs, had taken part in a rally earlier.

Many businesses oppose the ban, saying it won't stop tobacco use, but only drive away customers.

Officials in the central Massachusetts town said they're fed up with bubblegum-flavored cigars, electronic cigarettes and other new products that appeal to young people. They said the easiest course of action is to enact a total ban on all sales within town lines.

The American Lung Association said Westminster would be the first community in the U.S. to take such sweeping action.

Town health agent Elizabeth Swedberg has the support of nonsmokers like Vicki Tobin, who said she'd like to keep cigarettes out of sight - and mind - of her three young boys.

"I just think it's a great step in a positive way to promote a healthy town, a healthy lifestyle," she said.

But shopkeeper Brian Vincent, whose country store on Main Street sells $100,000 worth of tobacco products a year, said he's collected at least 900 signatures on a petition against the ban. Vincent said smokers will simply make their purchases in other towns, and probably buy their gas and groceries there as well.

"Having other adults decide what legal item we're not allowed to consume just makes you wonder: If this passes, what could be next? Sugar? Bacon?" he said.

Tobacco industry groups also have called the proposal a "bad policy" that would harm local employers.

Via Associated Press