One of the best parts of my day is greeting customers as they walk through the doors of my store on the corner of Riverside Drive and Route 3 in Augusta. As a kid from Pakistan who moved here when I was 14 years old, owning a convenience store wasn’t my first plan. I wanted to be a software engineer, and that’s what I went to college to study.

But while I was working for my uncle in his convenience store, I noticed something. I could provide a service to my neighbors, create jobs, and contribute to my new home. The economy was growing, and I saw my place in it.

Five years ago, I decided to open my own store, MD’s Market. It’s a convenience store where we sell everything from gas to coffee to fried chicken to fruit and seasonal items like knit hats and umbrellas. During the pandemic, when state and local officials designated only essential businesses to stay open during lockdowns, my 12 employees and I were happy to be able to provide masks, bottled water, bleach, and other necessary items. We’ve managed to stay open despite the new challenges brought on by the pandemic, issues with the supply chain, inflation, labor shortages, and increased wages.

Today, however, we’re facing one of the biggest threats to the store’s survival: a statewide ban on the legal sales of products that make up to 40% of my inventory, flavored tobacco. I specify legal because if this legislation passes, the legal sales may come to an end, but the illegal sales and online sales of menthol cigarettes, wintergreen snuff, and e-cigarettes will go through the roof. Where there is demand, someone is going to find the supply.  For example, law enforcement experts say the illegal tobacco trade along the northeast coast is a $10 billion industry and is filling the void created by a Massachusetts law.

In the summer of 2020, Massachusetts implemented a flavored tobacco sales ban that prevented convenience stores like mine from selling menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes. But if you think people suddenly stopped smoking menthols and vaping, think again. Besides sales going to the illicit market, 70% of the state’s legal menthol sales went to neighboring states like New Hampshire and Connecticut. The other 30% switched to non-menthol products. Who benefited from this law? Massachusetts certainly didn’t. Retailers certainly didn’t. They lost out on millions of dollars in sales and the state lost tax revenues to fund important programs. And it didn’t stop people from smoking or vaping.

Maine lawmakers probably think they’re doing the right thing if they pass this law. They’ve been told that if you ban flavored tobacco from store shelves, not only will you stop adults from smoking or vaping but you’ll also prevent kids from experimenting with tobacco.

The problem with this logic: retailers like me are required by law to check IDs. If we don’t, we face stiff fines and could lose our license. But we don’t neglect to card because of fear of penalties, we card because it’s the right and responsible thing to do.

There are no such gatekeepers in the virtual world where kids can simply go on social media and order online from unscrupulous people willing to ship the products directly to their doorsteps. You can bet they’re not checking IDs. On the other hand, we’re complying with age-verification laws and we’re using the money we make at our stores to support the families of our employees, and the students on Cony High School’s hockey team, and members of our own families like my brother who is going to medical school to become a doctor.

Many of the people who own businesses and work in the convenience store industry are minorities. We proudly support our communities with essential goods and services. We pray that lawmakers consider the crippling impact a statewide ban on the legal sales of flavored tobacco will have on our businesses and the people we serve.

Adam Mahmood is a store owner in Augusta.