OPINION  NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
A5
Vapes and e-cigarettes are not safe for anyone
OTHER
VOICES
Carrie Brogoitti
D
espite emerging clues about
the cause of vape-related ill-
ness and deaths, the cold
fact remains: Breathing anything
other than clean air into your lungs
is harmful. Yet two of the sub-
stances most used by Union County
youths — tobacco (including vapes)
and marijuana — are inhaled. This
is why these two substances are pri-
orities for the Union County Safe
Communities Coalition, a diverse
group of community members
working together for a safe, healthy
and drug-free community.
Here is a critical and misun-
derstood fact: E-cigarettes and
vapes are not safe ways to quit
smoking. Vape products, like
Juul, contain nicotine — signif-
icant quantities in most cases.
One Juul pod has as much nico-
tine as a pack of cigarettes. These
products are just another way for
the tobacco industry to maintain
addictions and hold on to cus-
tomers. In fact, more than half
of people who vape also smoke
cigarettes.
We must continue to push for
ways to protect kids from vape —
and all tobacco. E-cigarettes and
vape are highly addictive, and
young people are using them at
shocking rates. One in four Ore-
gon 11th-graders use e-cigarettes,
a number that climbed nearly
80% in just two years. Adolescent
brains are particularly suscepti-
ble to addiction, and kids who
use e-cigarettes are three times
as likely to start smoking as their
peers who don’t vape.
Let’s not be lulled by the
tobacco industry into thinking
vape products are safe. There
are other ways we can help our
friends, family and neighbors quit
for good that don’t include inhal-
ing dangerous aerosol. Anyone
in Oregon can get free counsel-
ing and FDA-approved nicotine
replacement therapy medica-
tion, like patches or gum, through
the Oregon Quit Line. Quitting
addiction is hard, and it may take
people several attempts. Stud-
ies show that people who receive
medication and counseling are
twice as likely to succeed in their
efforts to quit.
Help is available 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, for both
youth and adults. People can
reach the Quit Line through the
following contacts:
• English: 1-800-QUIT-NOW
(1-800-784-8669) or quitnow.
net/oregon
• Spanish:
1-855-DÉJE-
LO-YA (1-855-335-35692) or
quitnow.net/oregonsp
• Native Quit Line for Alaska
Indians and Native Americans:
1-800-QUIT-NOW
(1-800-
784-8669), then press “7”
• TTY: 1-877-777-6534
“This is Quitting” is a free,
confi dential, 24/7 texting pro-
gram for teens and young adults
who vape. Text DITCHJUUL to
88709 or www.thisisquitting.com.
Are you the parent of a young
person who vapes? Parents can
text QUIT to 202-899-7550 to
sign up to receive text messages
designed specifi cally for the par-
ents of vapers.
Until health experts can iden-
tify why people who have used
these products have become
seriously ill, and in some cases
died, offi cials are recommend-
ing that no vaping product should
be used. People who experi-
ence symptoms of the illness
after using vaping products, such
as shortness of breath, cough or
chest pain, should immediately
seek medical attention. Addi-
tional information can be found
at www.healthoregon.org/vaping.
Carrie Brogoitti is the pub-
lic health administrator for Cen-
ter for Human Development and
serves on the Union County Safe
Communities Coalition.
Changes in vaping regs may have little effect here
Few Wallowa
County stores
carry vaping
products
By Bill Bradshaw
Wallowa County Chieftain
Actions by state and fed-
eral agencies to limit the
availability of vaping prod-
ucts may have little effect on
Wallowa County. Few retail-
ers here sell them.
Oregon’s Democrat Gov.
Kate Brown on Oct. 4 issued
a 6-month ban on fl avored
vaping products to address
the growing public health
threat of vaping-related ill-
nesses. But the Oregon
Court of Appeals on Oct.
17 granted a temporary stay
on Oregon Health Authori-
ty(OHA) rules enforcing the
ban.
In Enterprise, the only
stores found that sell vap-
ing products were the Back
Country Little Store, the
Enterprise Chevron and
Safeway. None in Wallowa
said they sell them and all
Bill Bradshaw
Vaping
products,
such
as Juul, are stocked right
alongside
cigarettes
at
Back Country Little Store in
Enterprise. The shop is one
of the few places in Wallowa
County that sells vaping
products.
Bill Bradshaw
Back Country Little Store owner Tyson Samples shows one of the vaping products his store
sells. The shop is one of the few places in Wallowa County that sells vaping products.
those asked in Joseph said
they do not sell tobacco vap-
ing products.
Thrive Organics, the only
marijuana dispensary in the
county, only sells marijuana
vaping products that have
been approved by the Ore-
gon Liquor Control Com-
mission, according to the
store manager, who declined
to be identifi ed.“We only
sell products approved by
the OLCC,” the Thrive
Organics manager said.
Enterprise store manag-
ers emphasized that they
do their best to ensure no
underage vaping users
make purchases at their
establishments.
Little Store owner Tyson
Samples said that most
of his clientele for vaping
products are tobacco smok-
ers using vaping as a step
toward quitting altogether.
He agreed that the fruit fl a-
vors may indeed appeal to
younger users. He said older
vaping users tend toward
regular tobacco or menthol
fl avors.
In December, the Con-
gress passed legislation rais-
ing the national tobacco pur-
chase age from 18 to 21.
The OHA said that Oregon’s
experience shows that rais-
ing the minimum age is not
enough to stem the youth
e-cigarette epidemic. As one
of the fi rst states to raise the
tobacco purchase age to 21,
Oregon still experienced
a nearly 80% increase in
youth e-cigarette use from
2017 to 2019. One in four
Oregon 11th-graders report
current use of e-cigarettes
and vaping products like
industry leader Juul.
While overall use of
marijuana among Oregon
youths has remained fl at, the
primary way they’re using
the substance — vaping —
has dramatically increased,
an OHA analysis from Octo-
ber reported.
Youth vaping of mari-
juana increased 295 percent
— from 11 percent to 44
percent among 11th-graders
using marijuana — between
2017 and 2019, even as
11th-grade overall mari-
juana use stayed constant at
20 percent. The data come
from Oregon Healthy Teens,
a survey of middle- and
high-school students that the
OHA administers every two
years.
Good Winter Read
Oregon GOP, Dems at odds over short legislative session
By Claire Withycombe,
Jake Thomas and
Sam Stites
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — You could
say that Oregon is a bit
“odd.”
Until 2012, the state’s
legislators only met in
odd-numbered years, a prac-
tice dating to 1885.
But the sessions got lon-
ger as lawmakers grappled
with issues facing a grow-
ing state. By the 1980s, the
average session lasted six
months, according to the
secretary of state’s offi ce.
In 2010, voters said “yes”
to allowing annual sessions
— and limiting the number
of days in each session. So
now, in every even-num-
bered year, lawmakers and
lobbyists descend on the
Capitol for a “short session”
of up to 35 days.
Confused yet?
In the 10 years since vot-
ers approved the change, the
short session has provided
something else for Dem-
ocrats and Republicans to
quibble over. GOP lawmak-
ers complain that the even-
year sessions have become
unruly with consequential
new laws pushed through
with inadequate time for the
public to have its say.
The next of these
maligned “short sessions”
begins Feb. 3. Sen. Ginny
Burdick, D-Portland, who
leads Democrats in the
Senate, told reporters last
week that short sessions are
intended “primarily for bud-
get issues.”
Legislators write the
state’s two-year budget
during its longer sessions,
then use the even years in
between for touch-ups.
But in her next breath,
Burdick said the session is
also time to address issues
of an “urgent nature,” such
as reducing the state’s emis-
sions. A similar proposal
stalled last session after Sen-
ate Republicans left the state
to prevent the body from
having a quorum.
During the 2016 short
session, for example, law-
makers raised the minimum
wage, intended to stave off a
potential ballot measure that
Burdick said wouldn’t have
been as carefully crafted.
“I think you’re always
going to have that tension,
you know, what is an emer-
gency?” she said. “What is
urgent?”
Some lawmakers say the
short session isn’t used as
intended. Sen. Kim Thatcher,
R-Keizer, has proposed doing
away with it altogether.
“Ever since it was insti-
tuted, as I live through
each of these short ses-
sions, I think, ‘Wow, this
is not what was sold to the
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voters,’ ” Thatcher said. “I
think it needs to be re-evalu-
ated as to whether it’s work-
ing or not and make some
changes.”
Thatcher’s proposal —
Senate Joint Resolution 202
— would eliminate the short
session but keep the cur-
rent 160-day limit on reg-
ular sessions in odd-num-
bered years. Lawmakers
could extend that session by
fi ve days at a time by a two-
thirds majority vote in each
chamber.
“I would even say that
(regular sessions) could
be made a little shorter,”
Thatcher said.
While proposing to get
rid of the short session,
Thatcher said she also is
open to looking at ways of
limiting what could be done
in a short session. She thinks
that could restore the short
session to what she believes
lawmakers intended.
The Care & Feeding
of Ravenously
Hungry Girls
by Anissa Gray
Now in paperback!
107 E. Main St. 541.426.3351
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ATTENTION
DEER
HUNTERS
The Wallowa County Chapter of Ducks Unlimited has a
W. Blue Mountain (#649B) LOP tag on Hancock lands.
It will be auctioned off Saturday, Feb 8th at the annual
banquet and auction in Enterprise. For complete bidding
information, contact Gene at 541-828-7795
prior to the event or plan to attend.
Register on-line at Ducks Unlimited Wallowa County for
a three meat buffet including Stangel buffalo, plus raffles, games,
auctions, decoy painting for the kids and more.