Northern Kentucky Rep. Mark Hart (R-Falmouth) wants to end vaping in schools, and he plans to introduce legislation in the 2023 Legislative Session intended to do just that.
“We’re in the process of drafting legislation, which I hope to have ready and available to be filed first of January,” Hart said.
Hart and Pendleton County High School instructor Brian Melton presented the dangers of vaping to the Interim Joint Committee on Education Tuesday.
Melton presented data from the United States Department of Agriculture, which shows that 2.6 million teens are using e-cigarettes, and 25% use them daily. The majority, the data shows, vape with nicotine products.
Melton said that nicotine disrupts brain development, leads to addiction, disrupts attention and learning, and leads to anxiety and depression.
According to Melton, the Minnesota Department of Health reported that in three years, high school students using vapes containing marijuana nearly doubled.
“As I started peeling this back, I started to realize there’s a lot more to vaping devices than nicotine and THC,” Melton said.
He said these vapes could also contain heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanil.
Melton said he hopes lawmakers would consider creating a law establishing harsher penalties for vaping in schools.
“I think we would benefit from having something from the state that says any vaping device would have a harsher punishment or fine associated on a school campus,” Melton said.
Kentucky did pass an Anti-Vape Law in 2019. This law leaves the punishment to school boards across the state but omits a ban for staff and faculty.
“Recently, the City of Dayton, Kentucky imposed punishments and fines for the use of vapes and vaping devices,” Melton said. “Those fines and violations are actually harsher on the adults using them in public in the City of Dayton than what we have in place to protect our youth.”
Melton said he thinks legislators should consider providing funding for anti-vaping education for students and instruction on how teachers can respond to vaping-related medical emergencies.