By: John Michael Pierobon
Dear Orange County Commissioners,
There is an urgent need for you to raise the legal age for the sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21. Vaping and other forms of tobacco use by our youth is now a growing epidemic. A study from the University of Michigan and another from the CDC report nearly 40 percent of high school students now say they vape. Youth use of e-cigarettes jumped 78 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey.
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.
Because their brains are still developing, teenagers are particularly susceptible to the highly addictive properties of nicotine, which are found in all tobacco products.
A study published this year in the journal Pediatrics concluded that adolescents "were unaware of their nicotine exposure." They vape more than one pod, which has the equivalent amount of nicotine as one pack of traditional cigarettes, per day without thinking they are doing damage to their bodies because most youth do not know these products contain known carcinogens and nicotine. Nicotine is poisonous.
Vaping is the new way tobacco companies enslave our innocent and ignorant youth into a lifelong addiction to this poison.
The FDA says the most common way children obtain e-cigarettes is from someone they know. Raising the minimum sales age to 21 ensures that school children do not have schoolmates who can purchase tobacco and e-cigarettes for them. Numerous studies have shown that high school use of tobacco is cut in half where the legal age has been raised to 21.
In 2015, the Institute of Medicine concluded that raising the minimum legal sales age for tobacco products nationwide will reduce tobacco initiation, particularly among adolescents aged 15 to 17, improve health across the lifespan, and save lives. The Institute of Medicine also predicts that raising the minimum legal sales age for tobacco products nationwide to 21 would result in 249,000 fewer premature deaths related to cigarette smoking. It also would result in 286,000 fewer pre-term births and 438,000 fewer babies born with low weights.
Eighteen states and nearly 500 cities and counties across America have already raised the age to 21, because waiting for passage of this life-saving legislation at the federal or state level is like waiting for Godot.
Rep. Donna Shalala's legislative director recently wrote "I would still advise pursuing it at a local and/or state issue. There are a number of reasons for this first is a) we don't know what the final federal legislation might ultimately look like... and b) additional state and local provisions are helpful to bolstering support in Congress."
The Florida Legislature does not meet until next year, and there is little hope of enacting a good, enforceable 21 law at the state level because the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives has made millions of dollars manufacturing and selling tobacco products.
Legislation has already been written for you. Alachua County Ordinance 2019-04 is a good, enforceable 21 law which has been reviewed by the very competent Alachua County Attorney.
There is overwhelming popular support for this measure. The latest Gallup poll reports 73 percent favor raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products to 21.
Therefore, it is up you, Orange County commissioners, to act now to protect our children and save lives. Enact this legislation now.