You can’t smoke ‘em if you don’t got ‘em.

That’s the idea behind a pair of bills before the state Legislature which would ban tobacco sales to people born before 2006.

The proposal went before a hearing of the Joint Committee on Public Health on Monday.

If enacted, it would be the first such statewide law in the nation, though not the first implementation of the idea altogether. Residents of more than a dozen-and-a-half commonwealth communities already live under similar bans through local ordinances.

Advocates say a statewide ban for people of a certain age would represent an end to tobacco use for the next generations of Bay State residents, therefore saving them and the state from the costs associated with the harmful effects of smoking or other tobacco use.

Dr. Henry Dorkin, a Newton resident who the Massachusetts Medical Society describes as a “renowned pediatric pulmonologist and researcher,” told the committee that he was endorsing the bills on behalf of the 25,000 medical professions represented by the MMS.

“To be clear: this is a public health measure no different than keeping immunizations up to date. In addition to patient harm, the cost of to the taxpayers of Massachusetts for medical care of nicotine delivery system induced diseases is high,” Dorkin said.

The data shows that it costs about $4.74 billion annually to treat Bay State residents’ tobacco-related health concerns, according to Dorkin.

“Your medical society believes that this is a protective health measure, please protect our children,” he urged lawmakers.

But not everyone is in favor of the idea.

Gas station owners, liquor store owners and the trade groups that represent them spoke out against the ban, noting parallels between the state’s proposal and the federal government’s attempt at the prohibition of alcohol in the early 20th century.

Robert Mellion, speaking on behalf of the Massachusetts Package Stores Association, said that tobacco ban “is not going to work” in the same way that prohibition couldn’t make people stop drinking and other bans have failed to curtail behavior.

“The flavored tobacco ban doesn’t work,” he said. “It doesn’t work because it’s a Massachusetts only ban and we are surrounded by predator states who are selling to Massachusetts residents by the hour. That’s the truth, we can deny it, but it’s the absolute truth.”

“These bans don’t work because prohibition didn’t work,” he added.