Raise the Legal Age to Acquire Vaping Products in Maryland
Raise the Legal Age to Acquire Vaping Products in Maryland
The Issue
What is Vaping?
The word “Vaping” is a commonly used word but many people don’t actually know what it is. Vaping is the use of E-cigarettes to simulate smoking while not inhaling smoke. Instead, a person will inhale a nicotine- infused vapor that is produced by the device. This has become more popular recently because people hear the dangers of smoking tobacco and people will switch to E-cigarettes as they think that it is more healthy and less likely to kill them.
The Goal
What we want from this petition is to let the Maryland General Assembly hear our voices and raise the legal age to acquire vaping products to 30 years of age. If this change is implemented, the amount of vaping products that students in our schools will have access to will be greatly reduced as studies show that most students get their vaping products from friends that are between the ages of 20 and 25. With this change, the suppliers of the vaping products for the students will not be able to acquire the products that they want to sell to the students and in turn, the students will have less access to these dangerous drugs.
Dangers of Vaping
The use of E-cigarettes can cause many health risks including:
-Primary Ingredients in E-cigarettes can be toxic to cells
-E-cigarettes contain Nicotine which is a highly addictive drug
-Dangerous chemicals produced by vaping can cause lung disease and heart disease/failure
-E-cigarettes contain herbicides that can cause asthma, lung cancer, and extreme lung injury
-E-cigarettes contain volatile organic compound such as benzene, which is found in car exhaust, and heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead
Vaping in our community
In the past 10 years, vaping among students has reportedly been growing at a substantial rate and is showing signs of continued growth. Data released from the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) shows that 1.6 Million middle or high school students in Maryland, which, even though is fewer than previous years, is still around 5.9% of students in Maryland schools. Along with these statistics the CDC shows that 7.8% of high school students and 3.5% of middle school students have reported using E-cigarettes. Among these students, 38.4% reported frequent use, and 26.3% reported daily use.
Another survey by 7news shows that Maryland has the highest rate of high schoolers using vaping products in 2024 with 14% of high school students reporting using vape products which compares to the 10% and 8% in DC and Virginia Respectively.
Why now?
Why is now the time to act? In the past 10 years, vaping among students has reportedly been growing at a substantial rate and is showing signs of continued growth. And more recently, in Maryland schools in the year 2024, a large increase in vaping and E-cigarette usage has occurred and shows no signs of slowing down in the future. We need to act now to protect our students from becoming addicted to harmful drugs and help them so they don’t get fatal diseases in the future from using E-cigarettes as a teenager.
Resources to Quit Vaping or Smoking Addictions
National Help Hotline: 988
Maryland Tobacco Quitline: 1-800-784-6889
71
The Issue
What is Vaping?
The word “Vaping” is a commonly used word but many people don’t actually know what it is. Vaping is the use of E-cigarettes to simulate smoking while not inhaling smoke. Instead, a person will inhale a nicotine- infused vapor that is produced by the device. This has become more popular recently because people hear the dangers of smoking tobacco and people will switch to E-cigarettes as they think that it is more healthy and less likely to kill them.
The Goal
What we want from this petition is to let the Maryland General Assembly hear our voices and raise the legal age to acquire vaping products to 30 years of age. If this change is implemented, the amount of vaping products that students in our schools will have access to will be greatly reduced as studies show that most students get their vaping products from friends that are between the ages of 20 and 25. With this change, the suppliers of the vaping products for the students will not be able to acquire the products that they want to sell to the students and in turn, the students will have less access to these dangerous drugs.
Dangers of Vaping
The use of E-cigarettes can cause many health risks including:
-Primary Ingredients in E-cigarettes can be toxic to cells
-E-cigarettes contain Nicotine which is a highly addictive drug
-Dangerous chemicals produced by vaping can cause lung disease and heart disease/failure
-E-cigarettes contain herbicides that can cause asthma, lung cancer, and extreme lung injury
-E-cigarettes contain volatile organic compound such as benzene, which is found in car exhaust, and heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead
Vaping in our community
In the past 10 years, vaping among students has reportedly been growing at a substantial rate and is showing signs of continued growth. Data released from the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) shows that 1.6 Million middle or high school students in Maryland, which, even though is fewer than previous years, is still around 5.9% of students in Maryland schools. Along with these statistics the CDC shows that 7.8% of high school students and 3.5% of middle school students have reported using E-cigarettes. Among these students, 38.4% reported frequent use, and 26.3% reported daily use.
Another survey by 7news shows that Maryland has the highest rate of high schoolers using vaping products in 2024 with 14% of high school students reporting using vape products which compares to the 10% and 8% in DC and Virginia Respectively.
Why now?
Why is now the time to act? In the past 10 years, vaping among students has reportedly been growing at a substantial rate and is showing signs of continued growth. And more recently, in Maryland schools in the year 2024, a large increase in vaping and E-cigarette usage has occurred and shows no signs of slowing down in the future. We need to act now to protect our students from becoming addicted to harmful drugs and help them so they don’t get fatal diseases in the future from using E-cigarettes as a teenager.
Resources to Quit Vaping or Smoking Addictions
National Help Hotline: 988
Maryland Tobacco Quitline: 1-800-784-6889
71
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Petition created on November 6, 2024