Students fight to ‘Take Down Tobacco’
By Cait Medearis
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HONOLULU (KITV) — Local students are spending their spring break working to fight against child tobacco use and vaping.
At a ‘Take Down Tobacco’ rally on Wednesday, March 15, 100 students from across the state met with state legislators.
The young activists are hoping to gain support for stronger e-cigarette regulation. They are aiming to end Hawai’i’s youth vaping epidemic, which they say is something often overlooked by adults.
”I think specifically with adults, they aren’t the ones in the school or necessarily surrounded by it,” said Chanel Matsumoto, a high school senior and Take Back Tobacco leader. “But being a kid in today’s day and age, this is definitely an issue that I see is prevalent in today’s youth.”
These students are pushing lawmakers to end the sale of all flavored tobacco and to regulate e-cigarettes the same way as other tobacco products. Supporters like Governor Josh Green noted that because one out of three high school students in Hawaii regularly vapes, this is a public health crisis.
”It kills 1,400 adults a year just out of Hawaii alone,” said Green. “21,000 premature deaths–that’s more than 1% of our population going down prematurely because of this scourge.”
Advocates of ‘Take Down Tobacco’ are working to make sure the numbers don’t continue with today’s youth. Green said as soon as a bill to further regulate tobacco reaches his desk, he will sign it into law.
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