Sen. Washington & Del. Jazz Lewis: Time To End The Sale Of Flavored Tobacco In Maryland

Maryland Matters

Guest Commentary

January 12, 2021

As members of the Maryland General Assembly, our job is to put forth and ultimately pass laws that protect our constituents’ health and well-being.

During 2020, a tumultuous year that had borne witness to racial injustice alongside a deadly pandemic that ravages the lungs and has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities, our role as advocates for our most vulnerable residents became even more critical. For this reason and many others, we have introduced legislation (SB177 and HB134) ending the sale of all flavored tobacco in Maryland.

Flavored tobacco products are designed to lure kids into a lifelong struggle with addiction, hooking them on products targeted specifically to them in flavors that mask the harshness of tobacco, like minty menthol, glazed donut, gummy bear and cotton candy. Electronic smoking devices, often called e-cigarettes or vapes, deliver massive doses of nicotine, a highly addictive drug. Nicotine use can harm brain development in adolescents, increase their chance of addiction to other dangerous substances, and put them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.

Currently, a staggering 23% of Maryland high school students use e-cigarettes, a rate five times higher than adult use, and 80% of teens who have ever used tobacco started with a flavored product. In Baltimore, 87% of public schools are within 1,000 feet – about two city blocks – of a tobacco retailer selling these dangerous products.

Of equal importance is the devastating impact menthol-flavored tobacco has had on Black and Brown communities in Maryland.

For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted these communities with their predatory marketing of flavored tobacco products, namely menthol cigarettes. As a result, 85% of all African-American smokers smoke menthol cigarettes, resulting in a disproportionate burden of tobacco-related disease and death. African-Americans are more likely to die from tobacco-related causes than any other race or ethnic group.

Make no mistake: flavored tobacco is a social justice issue.

The federal government has failed to protect Marylanders from flavored tobacco, only restricting some types of electronic smoking devices, leaving countless products – including menthol cigarettes – widely available for use.

It’s Maryland’s time to act.

Entirely removing flavored tobacco products from the market is the only way to stop our kids from using them. It also sends a strong message to Big Tobacco that we will not stand by and allow them to exploit our kids, and Black and Brown lives, for profit.

The powerful tobacco lobby in Annapolis will pull the same old arguments from their playbook about the economic impact and smoking cessation, but don’t believe the hype.

According to a recent study by the Maryland Center on Economic Policy, ending sales of flavored tobacco products in Maryland is consistent with a strong economy and fiscal responsibility. The economic impact of legislation approved by Maryland lawmakers in 2020 that increased taxes on all tobacco products, if enacted by the General Assembly in 2021 via veto override, paired with legislation prohibiting flavored tobacco products, would result in $41 million in additional revenue and significant health care savings.

What’s more, e-cigarettes are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an aid to quit smoking and may expose users to some of the same toxic chemicals found in combustible cigarette smoke. The simple truth is that the tobacco industry needs customers and will go to any length to keep the next generation hooked.

The well-being of our most vulnerable residents hinges on government leaders taking a stand against special interests and the Big Tobacco profits at this critical moment.

Alongside Faith & Community Against Flavored Tobacco – a wide-ranging coalition of over 40 faith leaders, community groups, health advocates, parents, unions and lawmakers from across the state – we urge our colleagues to support comprehensive legislation that removes all flavored products in all retailers.

Protecting the health of our families, friends and neighbors, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, must be our top priority.

— SEN. MARY WASHINGTON AND DEL. JAZZ LEWIS

Washington represents Baltimore City’s District 43 in the Maryland Senate, and Lewis represents Prince George’s County’s District 24 in the Maryland House of Delegates. The writers are both Democrats.

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter

For more stories from Maryland Matters, visit www.marylandmatters.org.