Brunswick town councilors are expected to decide whether to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in town during a meeting Tuesday.
This meeting comes after members of the council weren’t able to come to a decision at their last gathering, where they were divided on the issue and asked for more time to come to a final decision.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued an advisory in 2018 warning that the use of nicotine in any form including e-cigarettes is unsafe. Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm adolescent brain development, particularly, the parts of the brain responsible for attention, memory and learning. Critics argue that flavored tobacco products are geared toward children and teens.
A 2021 survey from National Youth Tobacco showed that children are not just experimenting with e-cigarettes, but many are using these products most days or every day, leading to addiction.
The data also highlights that over 40% of high school e-cigarette users are vaping at least 20 days a month and over a quarter are daily users. In total, 500,000 middle and high school students are vaping every single day. Additionally, 85% of youth e-cigarette users use flavored products.
Primo Glass Manager Justin Leblanc said that roughly 90% of their products consist of flavored tobacco. He argued that banning flavored tobacco would not be effective in preventing youth from accessing it.
“Basically, it is not good,” Leblanc said. “There are already laws set out for it and the excuses they are using are just excuses. I think we should be allowed to have vapes as long as it continues to be set up like it is now.
“The kids are going to do whatever they want to do regardless,” he added. “It is up to the parents to parent them and up to the schools to check the bathrooms or check for vapes. It shouldn’t be on us to ban it just because they have it.”
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