North Carolina students plead for laws to stop underage vaping

By Rep. Donnie Loftis (NC House District 109) and Senator Gale Adcock (NC Senate District 16)

Earlier in June, we listened to high school students from Alamance, Duplin and Wake counties who came to the legislature to give a first-hand account of how vaping has invaded their lives.

What we heard is not OK. 

NC kids have easy access to illegal products that are sold on main street and on school campuses, they are passing out in class, and tragically, a healthy freshman high school football player died from irreversible lung damage caused by vaping.

A freshman from Wake County talked about how her classmates who vape can’t walk up the stairs of her school after a fire drill without getting out of breath.  A young woman from Alamance County told the news conference that vaping has taken over the bathrooms at her school where several kids vape in all of the stalls making them unusable by those students that don’t want to vape.  Or that some kids decide to accept a vape in a bathroom because the peer pressure is enormous.  Students from East Duplin High shared how they have organized vaping education programs in all of the county high schools, but have come to realize that educating kids isn’t enough.  So, they are also advocating for laws that will end the sale of vapes and nicotine to underage kids. 

The same week, a Charlotte TV station was called by parents who were shocked when their 12-year-old came home with a vape she had been given at school.  They asked, “why have NC lawmakers not put protections in place to keep our kids safe?” 

This is why as lawmakers, we have sponsored House Bill 430 and Senate Bill 318, to protect youth from the harms of vaping and nicotine.  We are calling this Solly’s Law to honor the life of Solomon Wynn, the young football player from Wilmington who died from vaping.  His stepmother has made it her life’s mission to keep other NC kids safe.  We thank her and the high school students for helping lawmakers understand how pervasive the vaping epidemic is.  It is a spiderweb that any young person can get caught up in. 

As bill sponsors, we have very different backgrounds. One served in the armed forces in Iraq, and one served as a nurse practitioner.  But in our professional careers and as lawmakers, we are committed to protecting people from harm, and especially protecting children.  We are also parents who understand that young people need structural supports created by adults to help them make better short-term choices until their own decision-making capacity can catch up with their physical growth. 

The situation for our kids is grim. It is not OK that NC does not require a permit for these dangerous products as we do for alcohol and lottery tickets. A permitting system works because it authorizes law enforcement to crack down on the shops that intentionally and repeatedly sell illegal vapes to underage kids.  It is not OK that NC is one of last states in the country to raise the sales age for vapor and nicotine products to comply with the federal age of 21.  We can’t keep kids from getting vapes because we do not have these laws. 

As members of North Carolina’s Child Fatality Task Force, it is our duty to bring this to the attention of our fellow lawmakers. 

Let us enact laws that we know will work, and that 43 other states have already. 

Let us safeguard NC kids from vapes and nicotine during their growth and development years when nicotine causes the most damage to health, mental health, mood, motivation, and behavior, and will set up a lifelong battle with addiction. 

Let us move “Solly’ Law” forward and protect NC kids.  We can’t think of anything more important than a safe, healthy, and productive future for our children.