Our kids can’t legally buy tobacco products, but that hasn’t stopped Big Tobacco’s billion-dollar marketing machine from targeting them online and through social media with products that trick them into thinking tobacco is harmless. Horrifyingly, Big Tobacco says our kids are their “replacement smokers” – the next generation of customers the tobacco industry needs to hook on their deadly products.

Big Tobacco has doubled down on their business model of making a profit by getting young people addicted to nicotine with products like vapes and oral nicotine pouches. How can you allow the tobacco industry to turn our kids into lifelong addicts to products known to destroy their mental and physical health?

Don’t be fooled by Big Tobacco’s claims that nicotine is a benign chemical – nicotine is an addictive poison and neurotoxin for the developing brain. Not only has it been used (and banned) as a pesticide, it can make permanent changes to the developing brain. Nicotine can cause headaches, restlessness, nausea, vomiting, seizures, coma – even death. It can also amplify depression, anxiety, learning difficulties, mood swings, and irritability, especially for young people.

Vapes and oral nicotine pouches, like Zyn and Velo, are a huge problem since they contain nicotine salts which are designed to allow higher concentrations of nicotine to be absorbed more easily. Most California high school students who use tobacco use vapes, and the use of oral nicotine pouches nearly doubled in the last year. Recently, there has been a sharp increase in nicotine poisoning of children due to accidental exposure to vape e-liquid which can cause injury or death.

This is the moment to break the cycle of destruction Big Tobacco causes in our families and community. We have the power to create a better future for our kids, and it starts with keeping Big Tobacco from targeting them with addiction, disease, and death. We need your leadership to stop the epidemic of youth nicotine addiction – and it’s more urgent now than ever.