Get Flavored Tobacco Products Off Our Shelves

I have lost six family members due to smoking-related illnesses.

My mother, aged 54, died of cancer of the esophagus. My father, aged 61, died of heart disease. My husband, aged 66, also died of heart disease. My sister, aged 61, had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. My brother, aged 47, suffered a massive heart attack.

My sister-in-law, aged 63, had pancreatic cancer. My other brother, currently 64, was just diagnosed with lung cancer — all due to smoking cigarettes, with the majority using menthol cigarettes.

My mother begged me to stop the respiratory therapist from putting a tube down her throat. I watched the doctors and nurses beat on my father’s chest when his heart finally gave up.

My sister was sent home from the hospital and given three months to live. She lasted one week. I do not wish this on anyone.

My name is Donita Garcia, age 68. I smoked for 46 years. I started when I was 12 years old. I cannot tell you why I am still alive, maybe by the grace of God or the luck of genetics, but I can tell you smoking started me on the road to addiction.

At one point in my life, I was homeless and had to pick up recyclables to buy my cigarettes. I needed a hundred and 28 cans each day, just to get my cigarettes.

This did not pay for food, water, or any other necessities that I needed. Just cigarettes.

If I had known as a 12-year-old that smoking would kill my family members and contribute to addiction that resulted in me living on the streets, I would hope I would have made better choices. But I was up against an industry that spends a million dollars an hour marketing their deadly products.

I quit smoking on May 17, 2016. In 2019 I got a degree to be a certified tobacco treatment specialist so I could help people quit smoking/vaping. To make sure they, and their family members, don’t have to go through what I did.

Flavors hook kids on nicotine. We know that eight out of 10 tobacco users start with a flavored product and 95% of smokers start before the age of 21.

Eliminate flavors and you take away the industry’s ability to addict a new generation and you break the cycle of addiction. The industry tries to say flavored vapes help people quit smoking, yet not a single manufacturer has applied to the Food and Drug Administration for authorization as a smoking cessation device.

In drug treatment centers where I work, the uncontrollable use of vaping is affecting many of my clients. It is so bad that the majority are vaping and smoking cigarettes. A 25-year-old vaping a 5,000-puff vape and smoking three packs of Menthols a day, a 30-year-old vaping a 15,000 puff vape in one day.

I could go on and on with examples. Most of these clients are between the ages of 20 and 40 and many have children. Their children are watching them, some as young as five, and picking up their discarded devices trying to be like mommy and daddy.

The industry is using flavored vapes with high nicotine content to attract and trap a new generation, our keiki, who have no idea their Juicy Peach Ice or Rainbow Sherbet vape can lead to a lifetime of addiction.

My own daughter vapes, and it worries me every day. She just had a major scare, but thank God it was non-cancerous. But what will happen if she continues to vape?

With 2,000 chemicals, at least 20 of which are cancer-causing, found in vapes, it isn’t the safe alternative that the industry promotes. She is trying to quit, but it is hard. Nicotine is one of the most addictive chemicals known — something I see every day and know firsthand.

I have heard so many stories of Hawaiʻi’s children vaping and how it is destroying their lives. A friend’s 12-year-old son has been in the ICU because his lungs are failing due to vaping. A 5-year-old kindergartener I know was caught in the bathroom vaping.

We have to prevent this by getting rid of these flavored products. We need our state legislators to pass House Bill 756 and get these flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, off our shelves!