More than a dozen teens stood with North Carolina lawmakers Wednesday to call for tighter restrictions on tobacco products. Nearly all said they knew friends or peers who had already started vaping in high school.
Advocating alongside Rep. Donnie Loftis (R-Gaston) and Rep. Grant Campbell (R-Cabarrus), the students urged the General Assembly to take up House Bill 430, a proposal to raise the age limit on tobacco products to 21 in line with federal law and require retailers to obtain a tobacco permit to sell them.
“I’m just wondering: are the adults paying attention?” asked Pranika Senthil, a Cabarrus County teen on the Tobacco 21 Coalition and Youth Council. “Young people aren’t just making careless choices. We’re being constantly exposed in ways that make these products feel harmless and easy to access, which means we really need adult help.”
The bill — also known as Solly’s Law in memory of 15-year-old Solomon Wynn, who died of complications related to vaping in 2021 — stalled in the House Rules committee soon after it was introduced last year, as did its counterpart in the Senate.
Teens press NC lawmakers to raise the age for tobacco, vape products to 21
Loftis, one of the bill’s lead sponsors in the House, tied teen vaping and other tobacco use to more dangerous drugs and violent altercations. He cited a fatal stabbing in Winston-Salem last December during a fight between two teenagers over a vape pen. Later that month in Iredell County, two teenagers were shot during an attempted armed robbery of vape pens containing the hallucinogen THC.
“We’ve now progressed from just a simple vaping issue among teenagers. This is a deadly game among young people,” Loftis said. “It is way past time for this bill to be moved into the committee process so that North Carolina can feel good about protecting these young teenagers.”
Loftis pointed to a North Carolina Department of Revenue report from January that found retailers selling 24,773 vape and other tobacco products that cannot be legally sold in the state because they do not appear on the state’s approved product directory.
In addition, he said, North Carolina law enforcement agencies have observed vape shops and tobacco retailers “increasingly serving as distribution hubs for illegal, dangerous drugs,” such as the powerful stimulant known as khat and the opioid tianeptine.
“Vape shops are serving as distribution points for substances far more dangerous than generic vaping products,” Loftis said.
North Carolina is one of six states that has thus far declined to raise its minimum age for tobacco sales following the new federal age limit of 21 set in December 2019. It is one of eight states that does not require tobacco retailers to be licensed.
These policy decisions pose significant hurdles for law enforcement even when stores are carrying illegal products, said North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement Director Bryan House.
“We don’t have information of where these businesses are, other than making observations or receiving complaints,” House said. “There is no body that has any administrative control or sanctioning authority against these businesses.”
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