Youth use of tobacco in any form is unsafe.

If smoking continues at the current rate among youth in this country, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 will die early from a smoking-related illness. That’s about 1 of every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger alive today.1

Preventing tobacco use among youth is critical to ending the tobacco epidemic in the United States.

• Tobacco use is started and established primarily during adolescence.2,3
  • Nearly 9 out of 10 cigarette smokers first tried smoking by age 18, and 99% first tried smoking by age 26.1,3
  • Each day in the United States, more than 3,200 youth aged 18 years or younger smoke their first cigarette, and an additional 2,100 youth and young adults become daily cigarette smokers.3

• Flavorings in tobacco products can make them more appealing to youth.4
  • In 2014, 73% of high school students and 56% of middle school students who used tobacco products in the past 30 days reported using a flavored tobacco product during that time.
  • https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm

Why do you oppose marijuana legalization when alcohol – a more dangerous drug – is already legal?

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Aug. 9 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon today became the fifth state to prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21 as Gov. Kate Brown signed the measure into law. The legislature approved the bill last month. In taking this bold step, Oregon will prevent young people from starting to use tobacco, save lives and help make the next generation tobacco-free. We applaud Gov. Brown and the lawmakers who supported this legislation for their strong leadership in fighting tobacco use, the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States.

Oregon’s action provides another major boost for the growing, nationwide movement to increase the tobacco age to 21. Tobacco 21 laws have also been enacted by California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine and at least 255 cities and counties, including New York City, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, St. Louis and both Kansas Cities. Massachusetts lawmakers should quickly approve similar legislation pending there.

Increasing the tobacco age to 21 will reduce tobacco use among youth and young adults – age groups when nearly all tobacco use begins and that are heavily targeted by the tobacco industry. We know that about 95 percent of adult smokers began smoking before they turned 21. Increasing the tobacco age will help counter the industry’s efforts to target young people at a critical time when many move from experimenting with tobacco to regular smoking. This legislation will also help keep tobacco out of high schools, where younger teens often obtain tobacco products from older students.

A 2015 report by the prestigious Institute of Medicine (now called the National Academy of Medicine) concluded that increasing the tobacco age to 21 will significantly reduce the number of adolescents and young adults who start smoking, with immediate and long-term benefits for the nation’s health.

Tobacco use kills over 480,000 Americans and costs the nation about $170 billion in health care bills each year. In Oregon, tobacco kills over 5,500 people and costs over $1.5 billion in health care expenses each year. Without additional action to reduce tobacco use, 68,000 kids alive today in Oregon will die prematurely from smoking. Increasing the tobacco age to 21 is a critical step in reducing and eventually eliminating tobacco’s terrible toll.

tobaccofreekids.org

It’s Another Day of Fun with Rock Solid Youth at the Fair! This year’s Flash Mob, Another Day of Sun from La La Land was a crowd-pleaser. We thank Francie Hansen, Coordinator of the Trashion Fashion Show, as she welcomes our youth leaders to share healthy messages during this event. The crowd is always amazing! We also appreciate everyone’s support of our youth, as they seek to find fun and creative ways to share their healthy messages for the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition. DANCE 4 HEALTH! We thank Madrona Jameson and Zach Fincher for leading the team, too!

Watch the video, learn the moves. Don’t want to get up and dance, stand in the crowd and wave your hands to the beat! Thanks for supporting our youth messages for healthy choices! Dance 4 Health!

Saturday, August 19th at 5pm during the Trashion Fashion Show on the Main Stage at the San Juan County Fair!

July 21, 2017

Smart Colorado has launched an educational campaign focused on Facebook, a social media site that’s likely to be used by both parents and their teen children.

Levels of THC, the chemical in marijuana responsible for most of its psychoactive effects, have been growing exponentially as marijuana has been commercialized in Colorado. THC potency averaged just 3.7% THC in the early 1990s.  Parents may recall the nicknames for the low-potency pot of earlier eras: ditch weed, schwag, brick weed. Average potency of flowers/buds in Colorado is now 17.1 percent, according to state research. But marijuana industry websites say strains can reach 30 percent. Concentrates average 62.1 percent but potency rates of up to 95 percent have been recorded, the state reports. Dabbing – heating nearly pure THC concentrates known as wax or shatter with a blowtorch and inhaling the vapor through a dab rig – is increasingly popular. It’s been called the “crack” of pot and “for the first time it seems possible to ‘overdose’ on cannabis,” says marijuana industry website Leafly.The Smart Colorado campaign features a compelling new video that describes the risks ultra-potent marijuana poses to teens.  It specifically highlights dabbing and features insightful interviews with a high school student, his mother, a prosecutor and an adolescent addiction specialist, among others. Watch the video below or view it on Youtube. Smart Colorado notes that Gov. John Hickenlooper this year told a reporter for ColoradoPolitics.com: “When you’re a teenager, your brain is growing very, very rapidly. The high-THC marijuana we have is so intense in the way it affects your synapses and those parts of your brain that literally every brain scientist I’ve talked to feels there’s a very high probability that, even if you only smoke once a week, this high-THC marijuana, if you’re a teenager, it will take a sliver of your long-term memory forever. That doesn’t come back in two weeks or three weeks. Your brain is growing so fast that the synapses don’t connect so you can’t retrieve information that you remembered.” We encourage you to check out this campaign and give us your feedback.  Does it provide new information that you find useful in talking to teens, parents or others about today’s highly potent marijuana?

Support Smart Colorado

If you believe in Smart Colorado’s mission, please donate today to support our work. Thousands also have liked Smart Colorado on Facebook to get the latest news about our efforts to protect youth.  You can also engage with us on Twitter.

Smart Colorado is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting the health, safety, and well-being of Colorado youth as marijuana becomes increasingly available and commercialized. Smart Colorado is a project of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center. To learn more about Smart Colorado, please visit:

smartcolorado.org

Our SJIPC Chair and San Juan County Probation Officer, Brad Fincher, shares “Essentially the new infractions for distracted driving become more broadly defined to make it easier for law enforcement to write tickets and keep people safer out on our roads. The old laws were repealed to pave the way for new.”

Attached are the AOC law table updates related to the 2017 Legislative Session.

Of interest may be the new traffic infractions created in SSB 5289 DISTRACTED DRIVING–ELECTRONIC DEVICES–DANGEROUSLY DISTRACTED DRIVING.  Until the State Code Reviser had codified the new laws, the session law number will be used in the law table:

Once the above laws are codified, this message will be updated with the RCW number information.