During its first meeting of August Monday night, the Sheridan City Council in Wyoming voted against an ordinance that would have increased the fine amount and penalties for any minor possessing or using electronic cigarettes or other vaping products on first reading by a 4 to 3 vote.
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The penalty would have increased as much as 2,900 percent from the current fee of $25 to a maximum of $750, according to city attorney Brendon Kerns. Violators would not have been required to appear in court or perform community service or serve probation and would have been guaranteed full expungement of the incident from their criminal records within six months — regardless of whether it is their first or subsequent offense.
Councilor Kristen Jennings was one of the four councilors who voted against the ordinance, stating that the council should not rush to pass a law without understanding its implications on the community.
“I realize that the school district has asked for help, but at the same time pushing forward something that could potentially be full of holes may not be helping anybody to the best of the ability that we’re trying to do,” said Jennings. “So it could be shooting ourselves in the foot, and in a way, I think the premise is great and I do see we have an issue, but at the same time giving ourselves a self-imposed deadline to not be able to work through some of these questions and concerns. It seems like some of the citizens have too. I don’t know how well that benefits anybody.”
A large study conducted by the TPA shows e-cigarettes control youth smoking.
By Maria Verven
An extensive, state-by-state analysis conducted by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) proves e-cigarettes are more effective in controlling youth smoking than tobacco control programs started after the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).
“Tobacco & Vaping 101: 50 State Analysis,” authored by Lindsey Stroud, uses data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to argue the benefits of vaping, especially when it comes to teen usage. Ironically, this same data had been used to create public hysteria over vaping rates, especially among youth.
“As lawmakers across the country seek to reduce youth tobacco and vapor product use, many have introduced and passed legislation that regulates, taxes and in some cases prohibits the sale of products that actually help reduce tobacco use,” Stroud said.
Stroud said she’s been using the findings in state legislative testimony this year. “I’ve received positive feedback from pro-vaping and tobacco groups but have not heard much back from the anti-groups,” she said. “They may be surprised to see that I used the same data they do to argue the benefits of vaping,” she said, adding that she’s determined to make this information publicly available and accessible.
Stroud said she hopes other researchers and industry followers will use the report’s state-by-state information on adult and youth use of tobacco and vapor products in future articles and reports.
Of particular interest is the effectiveness—or lack thereof—of tobacco settlement payments, taxes and vapor products on reducing combustible cigarette use.
While all 50 states and Washington, D.C. saw a decrease in the percent of smokers, some states actually saw an increase in the number of smokers, due to an overall increase in the state’s population. Stroud’s analysis took into account both the percent difference and population change in examining adult and youth vapor and tobacco rates.
The analysis of cigarette tax revenues between 2000 and 2019 found that while cigarette tax hikes helped increase revenues in the short-term, these increases didn’t contribute to the decline in smoking rates.
It also shows that most states drastically underfunded programs for tobacco cessation services, education and prevention after collecting cigarette tax revenue and tobacco settlement monies over the past 19 years.
Vapor products tied to decrease in youth smoking
Of greatest importance is the analysis on the reduction in youth use of combustible cigarettes—which is at an all-time low. The report also examines youth vapor rates, specifying whether they ever tried an e-cigarette or are truly current or daily users.
Here’s where the data got really interesting. Stroud compared the smoking rates among 18-year-olds to 24-year-olds in the 10 years after the MSA with the smoking rates in the 10 years after e-cigarettes appeared on the market.
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Lo and behold, there were greater decreases in smoking rates in the 10 years after the emergence of e-cigarettes when compared to the 10 years after tobacco settlement lawsuits.
And in the four states where smoking rates actually increased after e-cigarettes came on the market, policymakers had increased scrutiny and restrictions on e-cigarettes due to the perceived youth vaping “epidemic.” Coincidence? Stroud doesn’t think so.
“Addressing youth use of any age-restricted product is laudable, but it should not come at the expense of adult users of such products,” Stroud wrote in Politics, adding that bans, arduous regulations and/or unfair taxation threaten adult access to e-cigarettes and other tobacco harm reduction products.
“Completely disregarding that youth smoking rates are at all-time lows, officials often propose ‘solutions’ that fail to address the real reason why youth use e-cigarettes,” Stroud said.
States with higher rates of youth smoking have higher rates of youth vaping. Stroud said that the data clearly indicate that youth use e-cigarettes because friends and family members use them.
When asked about the “primary reason” for using e-cigarette products (among current users, only 10 percent of respondents from many states answered it was due to “flavors” while 17 percent cited “friends and family” and 51 percent cited “other.”
Vapor Voice caught up with Lindsey Stroud to learn more about this groundbreaking report and how this plethora of tobacco and vaping data can be used to inform future policymaking.
Vapor Voice: How was all this data collected? How long did it take?
Stroud: The idea was to provide policymakers with a plethora of tobacco-related data in a simplified manner.
We compiled the data manually by inputting data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) between 1995 and 2019.
While state-specific BRFSS data included detailed demographic information such as age, gender, race, education level, income and smoking status, it wasn’t easy finding that data for the U.S. as a whole. So I started going through individual state data and putting together state-specific spreadsheets on cigarette use.
In addition, I examined annual state cigarette tax receipts, annual state tobacco control funding, cigarette tax increases and youth tobacco and vapor product use, which came from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
It’s important to note that the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids also uses this same BRFSS data. However, while Tobacco-Free Kids only shows smoking rates and the cost of smoking in each state, we pulled various data items to tell a more complete, insightful picture.
What surprised you the most about this project?
I was amazed that my hypothesis—that e-cigarettes were more effective than the MSA in reducing smoking rates among young adults—actually held true. It was really eye-opening.
It’s still pretty amazing that 45 states and D.C. saw greater decreases in smoking rates among 18[-year-old] to 24-year-old adults in the 10 years after e-cigarettes emerged on the market than in the 10 years after the tobacco companies started shelling out millions that states were supposed to use on smoking cessation programs.
In the outlier states, smoking rates were at their lowest levels ever until 2018—the same year the surgeon general declared a “youth vaping epidemic.” Tragically, that’s when smoking rates began to increase.
Why did you feel this data was needed?
I really wanted to show policymakers data that compared youth vaping to youth smoking rates, which were way higher in the 1990s, especially compared to today’s youth vaping rates.
In all states, cigarette tax increases led to immediate increases in revenue in the short term, but these have all fallen as less adults smoke cigarettes.
I also wanted to call attention to the lack of state funding for tobacco control programs, despite the fact that states receive millions if not billions of dollars annually from tobacco monies such as excise taxes and tobacco settlement payments.
As far as I know, this is one if not the first analysis of the BRFSS data to include graphs—which clearly show the reduction in smoking rates among young adults as well as how little funding is spent on tobacco control.
Finally, I wanted to prove my hypothesis that vaping can take much of the credit for the reduction in both adult and youth smoking rates.
North Carolina has settled its lawsuit with Juul Labs for $40 million. The lawsuit is the first decision of numerous lawsuits that have been brought by states claiming the e-cigarette maker’s marketing practices was the catalyst to what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has called an “epidemic” of youth use. The money will fund programs to help people quit e-cigarettes, prevent e-cigarette addiction, and research e-cigarettes.
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“This settlement is consistent with our ongoing effort to reset our company and its relationship with our stakeholders as we continue to combat underage usage and advance the opportunity for harm reduction for adult smokers,” said Joshua Raffel, a Juul spokesperson, in a statement. “We seek to continue to earn trust through action. Over the past two years, for example, we ceased the distribution of our non-tobacco, non-menthol flavored products in advance of FDA guidance and halted all mass market product advertising. This settlement is another step in that direction.”
The settlement was announced on Monday by Josh Stein, the North Carolina attorney general, who said that Juul agreed to avoid marketing that appeals to those under the age of 21. The company will curtail its use of “most social media advertising, influencer advertising, outdoor advertising near schools, and sponsoring sporting events and concerts,” Stein said.
North Carolina sued the company in May of 2019, the first state in the country to file suit against the e-cigarette manufacturer. In the agreement, the company denies any wrongdoing or liability. Juul Labs will ensure its products are sold behind counters, the attorney general said. Juul Labs will also use third-party age verification systems for online sales. The order also commits Juul to sending teenage “mystery shoppers” to 1,000 stores each year, to check whether they are selling to minors.
It also bars the company from using models under age 35 in advertisements and states that no advertisements should be posted near schools. “For years Juul targeted young people, including teens, with highly addictive e-cigarettes,” said Stein in a statement. “It lit the spark and fanned the flames of a vaping epidemic among our children — one that you can see in any high school in North Carolina.”
Thirteen states, including California, Massachusetts and New York, as well as the District of Columbia, have filed similar lawsuits. The central claim in each case is that Juul knew, or should have known, that it was it was hooking teenagers on pods that contained high levels of nicotine.
“This win will go a long way in keeping Juul products out of kids’ hands, keeping its chemical vapor out of their lungs, and keeping its nicotine from poisoning and addicting their brains. I’m incredibly proud of my team for their hard work on behalf of North Carolina families,” Stein said. “We’re not done – we still have to turn the tide on a teen vaping epidemic that was borne of Juul’s greed. As your attorney general, I’ll keep fighting to prevent another generation of young people from becoming addicted to nicotine.”
California-based vaping company Kandypens was ordered to stop targeting youth in its marketing and pay $1.2 million for past violations, Los Angeles County City Attorney Mike Feuer said. Feuer’s office had sued Kandypens in 2018 for marketing its vaping devices and e-liquids at young people through social media and by placing their products in music videos featuring artists like DJ Khaled and Justin Bieber, according to CBS News.
“Tobacco products including flavored e-liquids, hook kids and pose a threat to their health,” Feuer said in a statement. “The message from this victory to the vaping industry is clear: don’t sell or market to kids – we’ll hold you accountable.”
The lawsuit had alleged Kandypens targeted young consumers on YouTube and Instagram, and did not restrict access to its social media advertisements to people 21 and over, and had paid to get their products into the music videos of artists who have a large following of young people, in violation of the state’s Unfair Competition Law, the Stop Tobacco Access To Kids Enforcement, or STAKE, Act; and Proposition 65.
An investigator with the City Attorney’s Office was able to purchase a tobacco products from the Kandypens website while posing as a teenage customer using a fake email account and a prepaid gift card. Feuer alleges the company did not ask for a date of birth or verify the age of the customer, in violation of the STAKE Act.
South Carolina’s fifth-largest school district, Richland 2 school district will not be joining a class-action lawsuit against Juul Labs the board voted Tuesday. In October, Lexington 1, a neighboring school district, became the first school district in S.C. to join the Juul Labs class-action. It was later joined by Greenville School District in December.
The lawsuit alleges Juul Labs engaged in deceptive marketing practices and marketed its product to minors. Juul Labs has said it has curbed advertising, is less harmful than alternatives and that its customer base is adults.
Board member Amelia McKie made a motion to join the lawsuit, which saw support from district Superintendent Baron Davis, according to an article in The State.
“Sometimes you take on an issue and lend your voice so others who don’t have a voice can have the strength to do so,” Davis said. “So we wanted to join the collective group of school districts that say ‘we believe vaping is wrong and we want to do something about it.’”
The motion to join the suit was a 3-3 vote, meaning it fails. McKie, Cheryl Caution-Parker and Manning voted for joining the suit. Lashonda McFadden, Agostini and Elkins voted against joining the lawsuit. Board member Teresa Holmes was not present at the meeting because she was sick, board chair James Manning said. The board may revisit the issue at a later date.
Board members Monica Elkins and Lindsay Agostini voted against joining the lawsuit because Richland 2 has no data to back up how many students in the district are using Juuls or vapes, they said.
“Richland 2 is a data-driven school district,” Elkins said. “I can’t support something in the dark.”
The increase in U.S. teenage vaping seen from 2017 to 2019 has halted in 2020, according to new research published by the JAMA Network. The study also found that there was a significant decline in the use of Juul products, countered by increases in the use of other vapor brands.
In 2020, Monitoring the Future surveyed 8,660 students in 10th and 12th grade. Nicotine vaping prevalence in 2020 was 22 percent for past 30-day use, 32 percent for past 12-month use and 41 percent for lifetime use; these levels did not significantly change from 2019. Daily nicotine vaping significantly declined from 9 percent to 7 percent over 2019 to 2020.
The authors of the study speculate that the rise of youth vaping has slowed because of “noteworthy events” during late 2019 and early 2020. The e-cigarette and vaping–associated lung injury epidemic that received considerable media attention in the second half of 2019 may have deterred use by increasing adolescent perceptions of harm from vaping.
What’s more, on Feb.7, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began enforcement against the sale of e-cigarette cartridges with flavors other than tobacco or menthol. This FDA action came after the decision by market leader Juul Labs to voluntarily stop selling most of their its cartridges preferred by youth.
In addition, the federal minimum age for legal e-cigarette purchase changed from 18 to 21 years on December 20, 2019, thereby potentially reducing youth access to vaping products.
“We are encouraged that according to the paper in JAMA Pediatrics underage use of Juul products, ‘dropped dramatically,’ which shows the importance of evidence-based interventions,” Juul said in a press release.
“We will continue to combat underage use of vapor products, which is unacceptable, by working with states toward full implementation and enforcement of Tobacco 21 and supporting [the] FDA’s [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] active enforcement against illicit and illegally marketed products, such as disposables, that jeopardize the category and its harm reduction potential for adult smokers.”
E-cigarette use among teens and young adults decreased dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly two-thirds of e-cigarette users reporting that they’ve either cut back or quit, according to a new study.
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About 32 percent of e-cigarette users said they quit this year and another 35 percent reported cutting back, according to survey results published Dec. 3 in JAMA Network Online.
Concerns about lung health were a major factor in their decision, the results indicate. One in 4 respondents who cut back or quit said they were motivated by concern that vaping could weaken their lungs.
Research has shown that smokers have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 infection, noted senior researcher Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a developmental psychologist and professor of pediatrics at Stanford University in California.
Vapers’ worries were probably also motivated by the 2019 nationwide outbreak of EVALI, which involved thousands of lung injuries related to e-cigarette use, she added.
“One of the main reasons they quit is that they were worried about lung health, and we think that’s important, that they thought they could hurt their lungs,” Halpern-Felsher said. “This really provides an opportunity to talk about and provide education about lung health.”
There have been significant shifts in substance abuse among young adults during the pandemic, according to a new Mayo Clinic study. Mayo officials surveyed over 1,000 adults ages 18-25, and roughly 34% of them reported changes in substance abuse patterns.
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Of those, vaping and smoking rates decreased for nearly half of those who responded, according to a news report by wqow.com.
“However, the most staggering finding was that nearly 70 percent of respondents increased alcohol consumption. Roughly half of them self-reported having depression or an anxiety disorder, which doctors believe contributed to the spike in drinking,” according to the story.
“We thought that with COVID-19, loneliness is a real thing,” said Dr. Pravesh Sharma, a substance use researcher at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. “School and colleges are closed, gatherings are limited, and that creates a negative mood state in a lot of people, and young adults often indulge in drinking behavior to cope with those negative mood states.”
Sharma said as news spread about lung damage caused by vaping in early 2019, as well as COVID-19 affecting lung health, more young adults turned away from vaping and smoking.
The multi-district federal class-action lawsuit against defendant Juul Labs continues to grow. South Carolina-based Lexington One School District joined the class action on Oct. 14.
Attorneys around the country continue to woo school districts to join the suit. In a recent presentation to the Leon County School District in Florida, attorneys for the Romano Law Group asked the public school district to join the lawsuit that alleges vaping manufacturers and distributors are targeting young adults in their marketing.
Attorney Eric Romano told the Leon board this week that if the district didn’t join the suit, schools would face extra costs to battle what has been termed a vaping “epidemic.” Recent reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, have found that youth vaping is on the decline.
The multi-district federal lawsuit, first filed October 2019 in the Northern District of California, has hundreds of plaintiffs, ranging from unnamed minors to school districts in several states, including Pennsylvania, Maryland and California.
Canadian youth use of combustible cigarettes has declined dramatically, while vaping increased significantly among Canadian youth over a six-year period, cigarette use remained, a University of Waterloo study says.
Vaping increased over the six years being examined by the researchers. Notably, they said, the increase started before nicotine vapes were legally available in Canada in 2018, according to a story in the Waterloo Chronicle.
The popularity of vaping in Peterborough has health officials worried, said Adam Cole, a public health researcher who led the study while at the University of Waterloo. They also found smoking rates were stable in the early years of the study but started to drop off in the most recent years, “which suggests that rather than smoking cigarettes, students are sticking with vaping.”
The researchers studied data from more than 30,000 high-school youth in grades 9 to 12 in more than 60 schools in Ontario between 2013 and 2019. The data also included a smaller sample from Alberta (nine schools), and large samples from British Columbia and Quebec, but only over three years because data was not available before 2016.
The data came from the COMPASS study, a multi-year survey of Canadian youth designed to evaluate the impact of changes to programs and policies on youth behaviour over time. It “shares the same story as other recent studies, such as in the U.S. and David Hammond’s study of Canadian youth, but with a larger sample and a longer time period,” said Cole.
Youth vaping has dropped more than 300 percent in the U.S., according to the most recent data. The overall use of e-cigarettes by youth dropped from 28 percent to 20 percent among high schoolers, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), which show 1.8 million fewer U.S. youth are currently using e-cigarettes compared to 2019.
