Bills to protect youth from vape and tobacco use proposed

A series of bills meant to protect Guam's youth from the dangers of nicotine and tobacco use has been proposed by Senator Sabina Perez.

While statistics show cigarette use is on the decline among young people, they also show a significant rise in “vaping.”

The bills by Senator Sabina Perez seek to strengthen the laws prohibiting minors from tobacco and now vaping use.

They would stiffen the fees and penalties for sales to minors, regulate tobacco and nicotine advertising that target youth, and prohibit the sale of products through vending machines.

Public Health physician Dr. Annette David warns against repeating the mistakes of the past.

“When cigarettes came on the market they were assumed to be safe until proven otherwise. And it took over a generation and a half for the effects to start to manifest themselves. And now we have lost over a billion lives to tobacco. It is a product that kills half of its users. If there is any other thing on the market today when used as intended kills over fifty percent of the people that use it, it would have been pulled out immediately. We took the pathway of safe until proven otherwise, and we are taking that same pathway with electronic cigarettes,” She explained. 

Youth Congress speaker Lily Vinch said e-cigarettes, or vaping, has already become a big deal among local youth.

She said, “It started as a cessation device as you said earlier but it completely morphed to a different thing. And again the youth are taking it on because it looks cool.”

“Everyone knows someone who vapes, or knows of someone who vapes.  I know multiple, multiple people at school who leave class to vape. It's become extremely normalized,” Vinch added.

Bistra Mendiola owns a local vape shop, but she agrees with the need to protect against vaping by minors.

Mendiola said, “When you go to a strictly adult vape shop, the windows are black, all you see is the business name, that's it. And we currently install a four foot sign on the door so there's now way you can miss it. It says 21 and over only. So those are the things we're trying to do because this is the responsible thing to do. If you ask me take out ents out of mom and pops and gas stations. Put it like in some jurisdictions in the US, in the adult facilities that sell alcohol, tobacco and cigarettes. The there's specialty stores that do that.”

But there are challenges to policing the use by minors, for one, the cost to the government.

Deputy Attorney General Fred Nishihara says the easiest way is to raise taxes on the products.

“When I spoke with AG Moylan he was like, if you want to reduce bureaucracy for lack of a better word, then just increase the taxes, the mechanisms are in place and dedicate that stream like i said to the agencies who need it,” He said. 

There was plenty of discussion during the hearing on the multiple bills about how to protect Guam’s youth, but Behavioral Health and Welfare director Therese Arriola says the Government of Palau came up with the ultimate solution: a complete ban on the products.

“That is the purest, 100-percent prevention strategy to completely eliminate it. I understand that it's in the books already, I understand there's some efforts to do that movement. And I'm sure the businesses will have something to say about that, but the bottom line is Palau has taken those extreme measures to safeguard their kids because that's how much they value their children's lives.”