GREENFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Right now, if you’re 18 years old, you can legally buy tobacco products in the town of Greenfield. However, come July 1st, that will all change because the town’s health board voted back in March to raise the legal tobacco buying age to 21.

One Greenfield parent told 22News, this law could be beneficial for children. “I do agree with it because I rather my kids not pick up my habit because I’m a smoker too, but I don’t want them to pick it up,” said Maria Nicholas of Greenfield.

Many people who support this law of raising the legal buying age of cigarettes and other tobacco products hope it will make it harder for people under 21 to smoke. However 17-year-old Aidan Belanger isn’t convinced this new law will keep his peers from using tobacco products. “I think that by raising the age, you just give people who want to make money off of selling their cigarettes more clientele,” said Aidan of Greenfield.

Other people told 22News, this new law raises a lot of questions. “If you can go and fight for your country, why can’t you buy a cigarette, but then again, for the parents who are out there who don’t agree with it, that’s the hardest part right there,” said Crystal Gaboury of Greenfield.

The new regulations will also ban most shops from selling flavored tobacco and cap the total number of retail tobacco permits in town to 25. The town of Greenfield is the 52nd community in Massachusetts to raise the legal buying age of tobacco.