Letter to the Editor: Time to ban flavored tobacco products in state

To the Editor:

The teen vaping epidemic threatens decades of progress in lowering youth tobacco use. The tobacco companies continue to target us with flavored products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, and cigarettes.  To truly protect youth, we must take all flavored tobacco off the market and create tax parity with cigarettes.

The BOLD Teens is a youth-led organization focused on social, health, and environmental justice.  We have worked to prevent young people from smoking and have assisted smokers in quitting smoking for more than 20 years. Every year that we make progress in saving lives, the tobacco industry finds new ways to hook youth, using massive doses of nicotine, thousands of kid-friendly flavors, and cheap prices. 

 We are at a critical moment to stop this epidemic. I am calling on our Legislature to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products, and to do it now.

Keshler Sanon
Dorchester