(CBS DETROIT) – Flavored tobacco found in vapes and e-cigarettes has become incredibly popular among the young population, and the Michigan Legislature is using one of its waning session days to consider banning them.
A package of seven bills was approved for consideration by the full House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon. The bills would also make changes to advertising, licensing, criminal penalties for underage possession of tobacco, and local ordinances, among other things.
Minou Jones of the Detroit Wayne Oakland Tobacco Coalition is in favor of the bills.
“When we look at our children today, we have to look far into the future. You know, maybe it doesn’t affect them today, you may not see the devastating health consequences today, but we know and understand the consequences of nicotine , and so today Michigan has a great opportunity to put an end to this,” said Jones.
Jones went to Lansing on Tuesday with some memories of her father. She said her father started smoking at age 14 and used the money from his paper route to buy cigarettes. This was before there were age restrictions on tobacco use in Michigan.
“My father was a blue-collar worker; he worked for Chrysler,” Jones told CBS News Detroit. “At the age of forty he was diagnosed with emphysema. We don’t want that for our children.”
Although several proponents of the ban spoke Tuesday, Rodney Rahim Deas said he opposed the proposed changes.
“It would create an underground market that would criminalize Black and Latino people for selling it, so this bill must go,” Deas said.
