Malden’s state senator has joined the push to raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco products in Massachusetts from 18 to 21. But e-cigarettes and the growing popularity of vaping is the target of Sen. Jason Lewis’ bill titled, An Act to Protect Youth from the Health Risks of Tobacco and Nicotine Addiction.
The key word in the bill’s title is “addiction.” By pushing for an increase in the legal age to purchase tobacco and attacking vaping, Lewis is exposing the continued push by the tobacco industry to target young people.
Successive anti-smoking campaigns and educational efforts in schools, coupled with well-publicized findings about the dangers of smoking, helped create the vaping industry. Repackaging the addictive dangers of smoking into a high-technology product built around vaping equipment helped spawn a modernized e-cigarette industry with a strong appeal to young people.
Lewis said national research shows 1 in 4 high school students indicated they have tried e-cigarette products compared to 1 in 25 three years ago. Vaping, in his view, helps keep cigarettes on school grounds and allows the smoking industry to retain a hold on young people.
His push to increase the legal age to use tobacco in Massachusetts shows Lewis is aware e-cigarettes do not exist in a vacuum.
Even without advertising, cigarette manufacturers have ways to capture the attention of young people during an especially dangerous time in their lives. American teenagers are coming of age at a time when drug use is the focus of heightened attention.
Marijuana legalization in Massachusetts sets the stage for the expansion of a new industry to sell products and reach out to capture the youth markets always coveted by manufacturers. The law passed by the voters in 2016 restricts marijuana use to adults. But as it grows and becomes a part of the Massachusetts landscape, the recreational pot industry is sure to view today’s teenagers as tomorrow’s marijuana consumers.
Lewis has hammered home the seriousness of tobacco use by focusing his legislation on “nicotine addiction.” He is sure to face opposition from the vaping industry as he pushes his bill through legislative committees, but he may incite debate about tobacco use in schools and about the national tragedy of young people and addiction.