Maine lawmakers have unanimously recommended the passage of a bill carving out an exception to the state’s new law prohibiting stores that contain pharmacies from selling tobacco products.
Members of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee added an emergency designation to the bill before sending it to the chamber floor, meaning that it will be able to take immediate effect.
Signed by Gov. Janet Mills (D) this past summer, a bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Rep. Matt Moonen (D-Portland) barred all pharmacies and any retail establishments with a pharmacy from selling tobacco products.
Fiscal estimates at the time suggested that this move would cost the state about $800,000 in the next fiscal year, with projections indicating similar levels of loss expected for FY 2027-28 and FY 2028-29.
Although many retail pharmacies, including CVS in 2014 and Hannaford in 2020, had already independently decided to stop offering tobacco products in stores, businesses will not have a choice beginning in April of this year.
It will be considered a civil violation punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 daily for a pharmacy or retail establishment that contains a pharmacy to sell tobacco products.
[RELATED: Janet Mills Signs Bill Preventing Maine Pharmacies from Selling Tobacco Products]
LD 2134, sponsored by Sen. Chip Curry (D-Waldo), would carve out exceptions for a certain subset of grocery stores, allowing them to continue offering tobacco products for sale despite the new restrictions.
Retail establishments with less than 26,000 square feet of customer-accessible retail area and that are operated primarily as a grocery store could still potentially be eligible for a tobacco license, assuming that several other key conditions are met.
More specifically, pharmacies in these grocery stores must operate as a “separately demised, leased space under a written lease and [hold] a separate pharmacy license.”
Furthermore, the lease agreement between the pharmacy and the grocery store must have been established prior to July 7, 2025, when the original measure was signed into law by the governor.
In addition to this, all of the grocery store’s tobacco sales would need to be made outside of the pharmacy’s leased premises, through the grocery store’s separate point-of-sale system, and from the store’s separate inventory.
Click Here for More Information on LD 2134
In testimony introducing the bill, Sen. Curry explained that in the process of preventing “large chain retailers with in-store pharmacies” from selling tobacco products, “a handful of smaller, locally owned grocery stores were swept in as well.”
According to Curry, there are “stores that happen to lease space to an independently operated pharmacy but otherwise operate just like any other neighborhood grocer.”
“Losing that revenue because of a technicality in how their building is structured puts additional strain on businesses that are already operating on thin margins and serving communities that may have few other grocery options,” he said.
Click Here to Read Sen. Curry’s Full Testimony
Although members of the HHS Committee did not make any changes to the underlying text of LD 2134, they did add an emergency designation.
This will allow the changes proposed in this bill to become law as soon as it is signed by the governor, likely allowing the updated rules to be in place in advance of the original measure’s effective date.
Senate lawmakers are poised to advance LD 2134 when they convene later this week. Because the committee’s recommendation was unanimous, a roll call vote is unlikely.
