Illegal Tobacco Task Force Public Meeting Sixty-eight Minutes

Meeting Time: 1:02 PM

Meeting Location: Via Zoom, dial (646) 558-8656, Meeting ID 872 8824 3248, Passcode 217779

Board Attendance: John Hayes (DOR), Stephen McDonald (MSP), Dan O’Neil (State Treasurer/Lottery), Nicole Nixon (AGO), Nicholas Ogden (AGO), and John Melander (EPS).

Public Attendance: 15 attendees

Call to Order:

• Mr. Hayes called the meeting to order at 1:02 PM. Mr. Hayes informed all participants that this meeting will not be recorded by Zoom and that Cole Doherty-Crestin will take notes to complete the minutes which will be posted to the Task Force website.

Opening Remarks:

• Mr. Hayes thanked everyone for attending and Task Force board members introduced themselves.  Mr. Hayes noted the annual report to the legislature is due on March 1st and stated the goal of today’s meeting is to review the recent changes to the draft annual report.

Approval of Minutes from Meeting 67 on January 28, 2026:

• Cole Doherty-Crestin emailed a copy of the minutes for Meeting 67 to Task Force board members prior to this meeting. Mr. Hayes asked members if there were any recommended edits to be made and hearing none, he asked for a motion. Mr. O’Neil made a motion to approve the minutes, and Ms. Nixon seconded the motion. Mr. Hayes stated that with no objection, the minutes were approved and will be posted to the Task Force website.

Preliminary Review of Annual Report:

• A draft of the annual report was circulated to board members for review prior to today’s meeting.  Mr. Hayes thanked the Task Force for proofreading the draft.
• Mr. Hayes provided a review of several sections of the draft which were modified since the last meeting:
• DPH provided some preliminary data for adult cigarette smoking and ENDS use in Massachusetts for 2024. Cigarette use among adults went down and ENDS use went down from the prior year. This is preliminary data and could change as noted in the footnotes. We don’t have any updated data for other data points yet.
• Added a case summary for a recent CIB administrative search warrant on an unlicensed retailer in Bristol County.
• Removed “synthetic” at the request of DPH as it references nicotine pouches.
• Added an additional case summary for LBOH inspections related to joint LBOH/MEB inspection.
• Refined the language in the legislative proposals section (no substantive changes)

Member Agency Updates & Other Business

• Mr. Hayes inquired whether board members had any agency updates. Board members did not provide any update.

Closing Remarks

• Mr. Hayes thanked everyone for attending and asked whether there was a motion to close the meeting. Mr. O’Neil made a motion to close the meeting, and Capt. McDonald seconded the motion. Hearing no objections, Mr. Hayes adjourned the meeting at 1:13 PM.