This legislative session, Maine lawmakers failed my son. They failed his classmates, and they failed his classmates’ younger siblings. How? By failing to pass legislation that would end the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol.

Despite our best efforts as parents, my son — and countless other Maine kids — have fallen prey to the tobacco industry’s continued targeting and the appeal of flavored tobacco products like watermelon, bubble gum and fruity pebbles. It’s an addiction that’s hard to quit, and one with potentially dire health consequences. It’s also one that lawmakers can play a part in curbing.

We owe it to our kids to protect them from Big Tobacco, and given the opportunity to do so, Maine lawmakers came up short. By failing to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products here in Maine, they put the tobacco industry’s profits above the health and wellbeing of future generations of Mainers.

As a parent, I want to express my disappoint in the Maine legislature’s vote on L.D. 1550 — and urge them to do better going forward.

Mary Lou Warn

volunteer, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)

Winslow

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