New York Lawmaker Proposes Cessation Classes for Youth

Under new legislation proposed in New York’s state Assembly, children caught vaping in school may be required to attend a state-created smoking cessation program.

Assemblyman Keith Brown introduced A.10547 to amend the state Public Health Law to require those caught using electronic cigarettes or vapor products in schools to attend an Electronic Cigarette or Vapor Product Prevention, Control or Awareness Program, according to news reports.

Attendance in the program would be part of a bigger state effort to create an educational program used in schools throughout the state to discourage electronic cigarette use.

Children under the age of 21 who are found using or in possession of an electronic cigarette or vapor product will also have their parents or guardians notified, according to the bill text.

“Electronic cigarettes are a relatively recent product and manufacturers had previously geared marketing toward non-smoking youth, with a large assortment of sweet flavors of e-liquid and ad campaigns,” Brown wrote in his legislative justification. “Additionally, certain youth-targeting e-cigarettes were designed to be small and sleek, and refillable with user-friendly pre-filled pods of liquid-making the device easy to conceal from authority figures.”