WESTMINSTER, Mass. – Earlier this week, Westminster, Massachusetts’ three-member board of health abruptly dropped a controversial proposal to ban all tobacco sales. This decision comes a week after a public hearing was forced to shut down early due to hundreds of angry residents seeking to comment on the proposal.

Opponents of the proposed ban, which would have been the first of its kind in the country, argued that it represented excessive government interference in private life, and many also expressed concern that a ban would unfairly harm the local economy.

At least one of the three board members, Edward J. Simoncini Jr., made it clear that his decision not to support the ban was based on the significant public opposition.

“It’s no longer under consideration — thank you, you made the difference,” Simoncini said after a brief meeting Wednesday in which the three-member board, without opening the question to the public, voted 2-1 to kill the proposal. “It is obvious the town is against it and therefore I am against it,” Simoncini said. A second board member, Peter M. Munro, also voted to withdraw the proposal, while the board’s chairwoman Andrea Crete continued to support it.