Youth advocates rally at Capitol for stronger tobacco and vaping laws; bill filed to license retailers on same day

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Kentucky high school students from across the state rallied at the Kentucky State Capitol on Thursday, Feb. 6 in support of stronger tobacco and vaping laws.

The students were part of the Wash Away Nicotine Youth Advocacy Summit, led by the University of Kentucky #icanendthetrend program, a youth education and prevention program focused on tobacco issues.

Delanie Crump, a youth advisory board member with the advocacy group, told members of the Senate Education Committee that Kentucky needs to implement a licensing law for retailers who sell tobacco and vape products to improve enforcement of the Tobacco 21 law. In addition, she said the state needs to increase funding for compliance checks and create harsher penalties for stores that break the law.

“The consequences of inaction are devastating,” she said. “This isn’t just about lung cancer 30 years down the road. It’s about kids dropping out of sports because their lungs can’t keep up. It’s about the anxiety and depression that nicotine fuels. It’s about academic distraction and underperformance. It’s about an entire generation being stolen before they’ve had a chance to live.”

Griffin Nemeth, a youth advisory board coordinator for #icanendthetrend, told the committee that the “licensing of retailers is not an anti-business decision.”

“It is an opportunity to protect public health, to protect the public health of our youngest generation,” he said.

Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, hinted that he would be filing a bill to license tobacco and vape shop retailers, which he did later that same day. Senate Bill 100 introduces a licensing requirement for all retailers selling tobacco and vape products.

“Advocates I have recently met with have told me that in Kentucky, more students are reporting purchasing their vape products in retail stores (12 percent) than the national average (7.3 percent), and we are only one of 10 states across the country that doesn’t have a licensing requirement,” Higdon said in a news release. “This is troubling, and, as policymakers, we can’t just sit back while kids develop lifelong addictions.”

The proposed bill “would grant the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control authority similar to that over alcohol sales, including the power to conduct inspections without prior notice and to address illegal activities,” according to the release. “SB 100 would allocate a portion of fines collected from violations to fund youth vaping prevention and cessation programs, ensuring that penalties directly contribute to mitigating the issue.”