By: John Michael Pierobon
There is an urgent need for Jacksonville to raise the legal age for the sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21. It is clear that vaping and other forms of tobacco use by our youth has become a growing epidemic across our nation.
A study from the University of Michigan and another from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention both report that nearly 40 percent of high school students now say they vape.
And according to the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey, youth use of e-cigarettes jumped 78 percent from 2017 to 2018.
The tobacco industry created this vaping epidemic by actively marketing youth-oriented flavors to children; e-cigarettes are the entry point for adolescent tobacco use because the overwhelming majority of youth who use e-cigarettes have never smoked conventional cigarettes or used other forms of tobacco.
And because their brains are still developing, teenagers are particularly susceptible to the highly addictive properties of nicotine (which are found in all tobacco products).
Nicotine is poisonous, and vaping is the new way for tobacco companies to enslave our innocent youth into a lifelong addiction to this poison.
What’s encouraging is that some communities in Florida are beginning to take action, and Jacksonville can follow their lead.
Earlier this year Alachua County became the first county in Florida to raise the legal age for the purchase of tobacco products to 21, and Fort Lauderdale is currently considering legislation to do the same.
Across the nation there is overwhelming support for raising the minimum age to 21; in a recent Gallup poll 73 percent of respondents supported the idea.
The leaders of Jacksonville should act now to protect our children and save lives.