Hawaii Lawmakers Pressed to Stop Sales of Flavored ECigs and Tobacco

State health officials, lawmakers joined the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii’s Youth Council members to launch the Flavors Hook Kids campaign. The goal of the campaign is to supportlegislation to end the sale of flavored tobacco, including menthol. There are a number of bills that will be heard by the Health House Committee to end the sale of the products:

• Senate Bill 1009
• House Bill 276

Alexis Cortes, a senior at Hawaii Pacific University said, “We are being targeted with more than 15,000 flavors like Molokai Sweet Bread, Auntie Li Hing and POG, and packaging that looks like candy, vaping companies are clearly trying to hook me, my peers and generations to come.”

The use of ecigs in Hawaii is high among the youth as 25% of the High School students on Oahu use the products and 33% on the neighbor islands use the products. The numbers are incredibly high and are far higher than when cigarettes were popular.