 Welcome to everyone. We're thrilled to have so many people here in the world with us, especially those of you from Burlington High School and Edmunds School. So we're taking testimony on S-88, which is an act relating to banning flavored tobacco products and e-liquids. Before we begin, I'm going to have members of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and a member of the House Human Services Committee introduce ourselves to you so you know who's here. So I'm Senator Ginny Lyons. I represent Chittenden County, including Burlington, and I chair the Health and Welfare Committee. I'm definitely from, I'm also from Chittenden County, so I also represent Chittenden County. I'm in Cummings, I represent Washington County right here, so I don't represent all such people. And I'm not from Chittenden County, I'm from Pirate, West, and I'm the senator from Romoyle County. I'm from Romoyle, I represent the Windsor County Senate District, which is Windsor County, plus the town of London, Derrick, and Harlem. That and the Senate is Romoyle. I'm Jessica from Sted, and I'm from Shelburne, and I'm in the House, and I'm here because I'm working on this same issue in the House. But it's not unusual for House and Senate members to have what are known as companion bills. So we have a bill in the Senate, and there's a companion in the House, and that's the one that Representative Bromsted was referring to. So the Senate will be taking testimony on this bill, and then within the next week or so we'll be amending the bill as it was brought to us and sending it on its way to the full Senate and then to the House. So, good morning. We have representatives from the Burlington High School, if you wanna come up, bring your chairs up, or do you have a presentation? How do you wanna do this? Yeah, we didn't do anything from the presentation, we were just gonna show the video at the start. Big Tobacco Slavery Game is not new. Big Tobacco has targeted minority communities with mental products for decades. Mental tobacco is easier to start, harder to quit, and just as deadly as non-flavored tobacco. I'm a black Muslim woman. I face enough racism, sexism, and religious prejudices in my life. I see what Big Tobacco is doing, and I'm not falling for it. Because of Big Tobacco, my uncle is in a serious battle for his life. I need to speak out. These are our lives, our lungs, and our voices will bring an end to all flavored tobacco. Be yourself, and use the microphone because we won't be able to hear you unless you do that to the microphone. Up this close to AT&T TV, I love the ability to read the stuff since I read the program. We're excited about Big Tobacco and the avenue of the influence of our needs. We are a diverse group, and we're committed to making sure that all the voices are heard and that all the people are protected. This is what I really focus on and love later. Big Tobacco is part of minority communities and we do have a lot of politics. These are some of the capabilities that are important in our society. Mental tobacco is the only favorite still allowing cigarettes, and it's a really, really black album with our huge league of under-assisting destinies. We created a campaign called Our Lives, Our Lives to Raise Awareness about these issues. We were inspired by the documentary and campaign Black Lives with Black Lives. The Black Lives to Black Lives campaign is all about raising awareness on the tobacco industry to the successful implementation of the black community. The Our Lives to Raise Awareness about the Big Tobacco has been an important part of our lives. Our friends, our family members, our community, we feel responsibility to educate and inform our peers and community members about the hard-working process. We're here to ask you all to take flavor tobacco seriously and protect our peers and our community. I'm personally here because flavor tobacco has a huge impact on my life. My friends and family are using flavor tobacco at least directly because of it because they are under wherever they are with their bodies. My uncle and my father are immigrants and they always flavor tobacco while working their lives. They didn't have the opportunity to get their education and were just informed about the harm that tobacco has caused them. My uncle and my aunt is cancer. The next speaker for our people will tell you more about that. And we will hear from all of your members who will share the LBC and our school. Our peers at the New Tarzan are not clear with the game about the future and the impact on the community initiative. Thank you. Why don't we have you stay here because we'll probably have questions afterwards after you've all testified. So, share the microphone. Thank you so much. Hi, Brittany. Right down the close. Thank you. You're welcome. My name is Hi, Brittany. I'm from White's High School. And yeah, so my favorite uncle and my dad started smoking when they came to Vermont. In elementary school, I teach at the top some toxic smoking meds and how negative they are. Negatively, a vice-survive. I remember being boozed together after smoking. My sisters and I would live from my dad and my uncle to play. I remember continuously telling my dad and my uncle that if they didn't stop, they would die. My peers were justified as last year when I was in the battle for his life. He ended up being cancer. It was very hard on all of us because we all loved him. And his positivity and patience inspired all of us. When we first came to Vermont, I didn't say bye to his sexist for our reasons. And so my uncle wasted the race most of his time. He was like, he has always been there for us. And they're so used to this presence of him being there to party with us. I will never see myself. Being the same person I know that from. But my uncle simply said it's worth it when we go to the hospital. Nine times out of ten, I will find myself turned up because it was so hard to see him so sick. His big heart changed. He had lost his care. And he was very, very weak. And he hurts me so much to this hand because of that female being around. The next day, he started living hell on me. And it was even worse because I felt so useless and helpless. Here the man was that reason me. And I think he needed something to help him more. I'm here because speaking out is something I can do to fight the feeling of helpless. My whole system now we can have them from happening to others. And it makes me so mad and hurts to see that as for tobacco everywhere. That as I have tried to hide how tobacco can impact you and the people we love most. We have to know everything we can to protect you from the intimidation. Thank you. I'm Shemora. And I'm also a student at Brownton High School. Big tobacco companies that have strategically marketed tobacco products to manage groups for decades. The most striking example is the Menthol cigarettes. The use of Menthol has made it easier to smoke and harder to play. Menthol cigarettes have long been marketed to black African American communities. And there are more tobacco details in areas with larger black, multicultural, and big tobacco has sponsored cost scholarships, cultural events, and happy place advertisements in public places that are popular to these kind of groups. These are all essential efforts to force ties with African American communities and build a listing positive brand. While at the same time, 94.9% African Americans who smoke started using Menthol cigarettes. But there are also 10 times more tobacco ads in African American neighborhoods than any other. And those numbers are known to state. Big tobacco has been off of the addition for decades and has taken the life of so many in our community and offer a lot of money. What about the lives of the youth and adults that these products have taken? And what about the future of our generations? There's not enough money in the world with tobacco to give back to these communities to make those for the lives they have taken. As a youth under the age of 18, we shouldn't have to be here asking for help to protect our lives and the lives of the people we love. That's the basic privilege we deserve. We should have been protected once down again. But as to this show, would you miss this something that we really need to do or asking you for your help? Thank you. Questions? I guess we'll go ahead, Senator Aguilas. Are there specific advocacy things that you feel are the greatest words, like people your age or the greatest words, entrance or are there any feelings that just, you know, the flavor? I think that the biggest thing we see is that many of the ads, is there a way to stand up for that? Many of the ads, as you can see here, they have bright colors or they have things that kids would want to eat. And a lot of them feature African-American couples or like people having fun. And I think that adults, youth are more likely to look at these kind of pictures and think, well, that must be cool. Senator Reza. So, you're about in both cigarettes. Are any of your friends dating? Would you say more of your friends are being thrown down in cigarettes themselves or? I think they're definitely more into cigarettes. Because, and I think that's, most of us feel like it doesn't, as much as they come up on babes and dark in natural cigarettes. And I think a lot of them are entitled to sperm on baby, if you see her. Or is it mostly pure preciousness pushing the parents' favorite? Do you mind using the mic? I'm sorry, I didn't do the jam. If you can hold over. Get a picture of your other friends and they can connect. They're going to look sometimes when they do it. And it's also, you kind of see it everywhere. So you're kind of like curious as to them. You know, it's a side effect on the stuff. And I think that there isn't most of them use it for such things in cigarettes. Because there's so much like, or I think now when a bird, like people don't see cigarettes as being used to them. Whereas maybe they might think that it's violent and most people don't even know that it's a harm that, you know, it's not considered as like, there's like, it's like, grown into nasty animals. Like, there's just nasty people on behind the cigarettes. Or like babies, like, they're flavoring. And they have like, they don't have that odor. They just say, we hear about it and now there's an epidemic that's going on. We just say that's true. Like, we hear that vaping is an epidemic amongst young people. That it's all over the place. We should say that's that much to our friends. Good. Use of rape. I don't think you, you not hear it. Because people can't hear it. I think it's sort of. So, what can I say? We hear that vaping is everywhere amongst young people now. Is that what's going on? Yeah. Yeah, it's based in where you see it. It's a school where we have more young people on the inside of the room. They see the box of the media. Even like, outside of the classroom. It's like, in the room on the side. It's just about the norm for people to be there. Thank you. Other questions? It's a brilliant approach. Are you finding that your teachers and the other folks are educating at school on why vaping is a problem? I feel like our school is more people educating about, like, tobacco and cigarettes when most people don't use those kinds of substances. So, I feel as if they should educate us more about these cigarettes and yours and their box, because that's the big thing. Also, a lot of educational needs come and talk because it's very, very important. Because at our school, we have a class for once a year. We entire, our entire, as opposed to students. So, after that, it's, that was the only opportunity for us to discuss this kind of talk, the same story. And besides that, we're also learning English at the sites. You know, writing moments that I'm appreciating. And I'm really curious, are there, is there, we change the age of how old you had to be to buy a cigarette, which is 21 now. I'm not curious if you're finding that some of your friends in school are trying to not use e-cigarettes anymore but are finding it difficult and are they getting much help? Um, I don't think they are. I usually have the, um, age, where I want to help some people but I know people are still getting a bit from the store, they're still online. But I don't think people are like, I like, well they changed their age to e-cigarettes themselves. I'm just going to put it in there. It's a field of funding for us to access it. Thank you. Do you have a question? I feel like it's the, kind of, kind of constricting the age of the girls. I think that we should just get rid of it because it can even move closer up. Yeah. Um, but I think it's actually why you're boys. Thank you. I think that, like, how we're just, like, restricting that, and that kind of thing won't be nothing because after the date, those people, people who are, they don't think that are addicted to nicotine, they're going to find a way to get it. Whether it's asking somebody, why you're going and it's holding them, whether it's making you, you're still going to find a way to get it. You know, like, there's even, like, little shops they have where somebody ultimately will get it and they're, like, kind of screaming it because it can move me and they're, like, settling that kind of stuff. And so, I feel like just getting rid of it completely is going to be, it's, like, the solutions to the problem because restricting and adding restricting and that kind of stuff isn't going in. So, did you say that most of the ads in, in, that are out of there are about cigarettes and not being used? I don't think they're, like, they weren't about the cigarettes. We didn't, um, we didn't come up with a project where it was hard to forward which are, like, kind of an ad in the community and there was a lot of ads of, like, the cigarettes and jewels and there were places, like, writing, like, posters and, like, on the TV ads and, like, you're kind of so it was, like, a lot of those ads that kind of, you know, was out in the city. So, Senator, before we go ahead. Um, first of all, thanks for your, your testimony. This conversation was so, so, so... and I lost a parent to cancer, so I'm sympathetic. You know, it's a nightmare. What is the cultural attitude, um, your peers at school about smoking and, uh, what I'm thinking about is when I was a kid coming out in the 50s and 60s, believe it or not, there were people around me. No. And there was a, a man on my block who did not smoke. He did not smoke. And we thought he was weird. Every one of my friends, fathers and mothers smoked. It was an enormity. And to suggest that maybe he should if he was considered weird. So there was a damn move away from the tobacco culture already. And it took years. And I remember the first time I saw on someone's desk, just a sign, thank you for not smoking. I felt like I'm an annoying person to dare have that sign there. We used to smoke in movie theaters. We used to smoke on airplanes. And gradually we moved away. What is the attitude among young people in school? They're friends. They're people you go to class with. Do they disapprove or is it largely the same that this is what is done and the non-smallers and non-vapers are sort of weird? I don't think it's that I don't think it's that I don't think it's that I don't think it's that I don't think it's that it's just that you think and you smoke it's like people are being hired to go out and play. So you say the the vapers are full? It's kind of like a check out. And also people at the exams could go ask money for to go to the rent, and students have to take my tuition. They become friends over that. And I don't think, yeah, I don't think this is like like a war in the community that they can't get high and yeah, but nobody's ever like, you know, come up to me when I show up here, because I wouldn't be proud of it. Yeah, well there's any consolation things have not changed who's that way in the 50s and 60s as well? So one of the one of the issues that we have to address in this bill were obviously looking at flavored baked products but also menthol based on tobacco and flavored tobacco products and I'm wondering you come out pretty strong against any menthol and other flavored tobacco products. Is that is that position? How did you come to that? Is that because of the kids around you using those products or is it a result of your uncle's experience? What leads you guys to or is it simply the information that's out there from scientific information that's out there? That was a hard question to answer. I think that's very different. I feel like different people would answer this question differently. But for me I also grew up around people who smoked. Like that was the norm and I feel like the only reason why I'm like why I wouldn't do it is because I chose to find ways to be educated. I didn't like nobody said oh you want to learn about this it was kind of something that I found on my own. Do you think actually for me it was all of those I was kind of starting out in my community, my friends and then when I go to my uncle last time to that point I just like hit me like this is affecting people's lives this is I just look back and it's back to me. Yeah it's the same thing with her that was so unique I think from my experience and how it was affecting my life even though it was any quality it was going through it kind of hit me but I've also been doing a piece of work there so I think it's also like realizing how it impacts the aspect of life some female and yeah I'm just realizing that after it's started I don't like looking that way and so yeah One more You have a comment You don't want to start here how would you like to share something so I feel like for me I've been learning about this stuff it took me a few years for it to actually hit me like literally this year after I watched a certain video I was really kind of disgusted because when you think about it for me it feels like there were people years ago there were people they sat around the table and they thought about how it was within other people to use their products knowing well that it would hurt their bodies so and I just feel like I understand it because for money that's not worth it One last question So I sense the feeling I get from this telling me that it's right most of the people that are older in their families are most of your friends now are so this is the vaping piece it's kind of generational do any of the people do people of your parents and your uncles age do they all smoke or do they vaping too for me after they had it in my home everybody had one stop but I only have to smoke also and he actually died because he got cancer and my and then I only have two other families but not all of them have a big family so we want to keep it that's a good bet I'm sure we're going to dream of this tomorrow like my first one we're going to have this people also like gum passes and then tobacco products and then after it's a thing of my own call so we'll just try to stay away from that So being here today and all of your friends who brought all of the other support it's just terrific and you know I think as this bill moves forward that maybe my house is kind of maybe inviting you guys down here to help them understand the bill a little bit more just had it actually the first time I went to a site it was a well up to here I just wanted to make sure I'm going to I just want to tell your name my name is Grace Brown I'm a sophomore in high school I'm signing a book called stop living in a convenience store or allowing you to have a neighborhood well you guys that's the thing for you make a team for all those make a team yes brothers, yes sisters you'll get a precious kill on the block and if it's not 100% satisfactory you don't get your life back yes brothers, yes sisters this stuff kills it's not a story that I could make in the community for decades our schools, our home it's not a coincidence Ronald Reagan brought happiness to that Mulligan, clearly our gals are for everyone no free child's money our many old DMV things for a dish without beef on stop, don't bother us stop using us, stop no, that's beautiful did you break that? hello teachers her and a friend both here to buy some peace that's pretty much it guys are great we'll see who we can and we'll we'll see who we can please and make sure you state your name for the record and then we'll tell all your stories I'm Dr. Philip Gardner what's really great for me I see that my message has been getting out and all of this but today we're going to focus on the men's ball, is this okay? yes anyway you need to be we'll be looking over there as well so I'm Dr. Philip Gardner I'm a senior program officer at tobacco league disease, these three things that I'm going to say generally the same as fighting for females and and the general population of the top three minds there the cerebral vascular disease or what we call stroke and that would be 5% of the mental health cigarettes by 1968 it almost tripled to 14% in 1976 it tripled again to 44% by 2006 it doubled into the 80s to go up 80% and as a court commercialist gravitated toward the disease brown and Williamson which then was found out that our features tripled cigarette advertising in Africa and editing metals got a brand new bed and it's still true today for religious, political organizations taking money from us folks aren't even allowed in certain stores they aren't allowed since 1969 1979 medical cigarettes we trust that travel through black communities with megaphone before it's blasting out music of ours and give it away for example I lived in New York City in 1979, neurotransmitters North front cigarette advertising different vibrational death in the community of the great study supporting is it that these cigarettes are important to their recovery or is it that they're being targeted how can you speak to that so the question you're asking is why tell me theoretically information for us yet that made a sense you shouldn't make a sense but we also need to see more research we also need to look into the other stuff about cigarettes is going it was marketed from test marketed products and excluded from the impact of the use of menthol and cigarettes what tips do you have that it represents the acronym to that it's probably scientific advisory committee I'm sorry 2016 information regulatory affairs he was the one who supervised FDA's policies relating he was he left in 2014 was hired by the he was hired by the management we actually know what happened we actually know that this went on where we are today can I just say is this because the tobacco industry spends so much money on lobbying and I mean it seems like just an incredible about influences it's I know one of the influential people many of them are a somewhat restriction of flavors but it's not really a restriction of flavors you can still if you're using one system you can still buy flavors that way it's only to and in terms of the after working with the FDA for years we said later for that we're going to do this at the local level I won't go back through all the dimension of this there are many forces rated against the blacks the tobacco industry is important that we keep in organizations take money from the tobacco industry sponsored a nationwide tour a couple years ago to actually promote mental health and is the one who's come out with the idea that if you get rid of mental health cigarettes let me encourage let me say be as strongly as I can flavor rate with regulations no arrests of anybody for possession there have been 36 cities that have taken up mental restrictions there has been not one arrest black cigarette the only reasons of black cigarettes as I showed you was pushed down on the throat over a 50 year period people said well why don't you take and get rid of other people's cigarettes well frankly I'm trying to save people's lives and black folks who died disproportionately this is why we're trying this is the Delta Sigma Theta but sorority and past national resolutions beat throughout the country on this today it might as well give my colleague a little play Dr. Valerie Yerger who works with Delta Sigma Theta who is responsible for that we actually received a letter from our NAACP so it's not all of that it's all makers they've got over 400 lobbyists when I did the slide about four or five months ago they were in 49 states there about 50 states of course they're passing they think tobacco 21 will take care of everything I think some of the kids have pointed out you can pass all the laws you want if kids want it that's how I got cigarettes that's how you get alcohol when your kids you get some of them some retailers have made these bad decisions but that's what may not have kids do things be aware that Ben Jealous is running for possibly running for mayor of Baltimore has been hired by Jule section outrageous they've given $7.5 million to our complex college and university actually spoke there in August about this in each uses there the example system I'll talk about a little bit more what you're going to see I don't know if you know things have kind of really stalled for Jule but they were thinking of having Jule from the store it's going to be all slick and pretty you can do that too the fight to ban menthol let me just say the first city that we did this work in was Chicago they put up a 500 foot barrier around schools to prevent the sale of these products the next group of cities were in Minnesota in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth where they restricted sales to Baptist but today we have 36 cities that have menthol restrictions why have the asterisks by their increasing as in speed last week the city of Carson in Southern California passed menthol restrictions and similarly there are 220 restrictions in that story there are 5 states that have the emergency e-sacred flavor restrictions asterisks by Massachusetts that we're going to work there this fall and it was soundly defeated in 2018 I won't go into all the details of that but we made the selling of menthol just as legal as it used to be and we're going to supervise the disaster system as e-cigarette restrictions until the FDA got we all make mistakes of course the empire struck back they put a ballot on the measure they put a prop seat it would overturn the cigarette moratorium and menthol is a social justice issue the oppressed sectors of our society is outright discriminatory and genocidal the poorest the folks that are least informed the folks with the fewest resources brain on the most vulnerable section of society is what's taking place if menthol were banned this is a great study that was done a few years back if menthol were banned and only 30% of the people who are smoking cigarettes stop smoking only 30% from 10 to 9 I'm just showing you this half a million lives would be saved what's it saying this is a great picture here's a gentleman sitting on his skateboard cat backwards surrounded by a tobacco industry this is what we're fighting against thank you this is how it can be contacted at least on the top one for the next week I don't need to change that I'm not taking any questions as you have thank you that's comprehensive and I know that each slide as you said probably goes to another hour long we're very appreciative of the thought that you brought to us Senator McCormack there's research that one of the motives for the tobacco industry to target people of color the last century people of color have sort of defined what's called young white people imitating young white guys pick up on styles it was fashionable in the black community two or three years earlier young white people don't want to be white people so we have tobacco documents that actually say exactly what she just said young African-American men are trendsetters by the tobacco industry and if we can get the trendsetters to use our product that will tell other people to use their product I should send you those things they actually say that so you're very that's exactly right having said that let's take it another step in the fifties this is not only what I'm going to throw at and look at it this way African-Americans are moving from the south to the north in great numbers that are in segregated situations and there began a movement within the business in the United States to develop products specifically for this population different hair oils different food products and they went ah we can have different smokes for different folks that became the impetus from 1945 other than the last slide that I showed you in 1958 we use a segregated black market in Nevada which you figured out and next step they figured out African-American young men are trendsetters you put those two together questions I'm going to ask a question again I know I think we asked it yesterday and I think you answered it very briefly because I know you need to get to a press conference let's do some other folks if flavors were banned for vaping e-cigs and menthol was still left in cigarettes what would we see happen unfortunately we think that people would gravitate toward menthol cigarettes unfortunately what we're seeing around the United States are people taking up I appreciate the questions earlier about these separating these two issues out let's deal with the flavor issue in the e-cigarettes and it's hurting these young people but let's leave menthol in question for me smokers who have been smoking as you showed us for a very long time do you think that if we ban menthol cigarettes they will gravitate towards regular cigarettes I have data and your observations right there's so much to tell them there's been interviews with menthol that the study has been done on that a good 60% said they would stop smoking cigarettes I used to be a menthol cigarette smoker there was no way I would unless it had some new flavor I wasn't going to do that anyway so we know that one thing I need to add if legislation is passed it's important that there be cessation services for menthol smokers and other smokers as part of that we can't take this big product away from somebody and then not give them help in dealing with it that is a good place and we'll actually be taking some testimony about cessation services being covered without co-pay from our private carriers so that's something important thank you for bringing that up thank you for having me terrific thank you