Lawmakers are considering a bill that if passed, would make Hawaii the first state to ban flavored tobacco and liquids.

Health officials say Hawaii’s kids are being lured into an addiction to e-cigarettes.

Over the last 10 years e-cigarettes and vaping have grown in popularity.

“As we’ve been watching the data, more than one-fourth of high school students are regular users of e-cigarettes,” said Lola Irvin, administrator for chronic disease prevention and chronic disease division team.

The Department of Health says Hawaii’s high school teens vape twice as much as youth on the mainland.

Nearly half of high school students and close to 30% of middle school students have tried e-cigarettes in Hawaii.

Lawmakers and health officials say it’s the 15,000 flavors like POG, lava flow, and French toast that’s drawing kids in—and most kids don’t know there’s nicotine in them.

“One of those pods if it has 45 mg that’s equivalent to 45 sticks of cigarettes,” Irvin said.

She says it affects developing brains and primes kids for addiction.

“Those youth are three to four times more likely to switch over to regular cigarettes,” she said.

But former smokers say switching to e-cigarettes helped them stop smoking and think a ban would push people back to cigarettes.

“I think people will revert smoking back to cigarettes if they don’t have any kind of alternative,” said Daniel Tu-Tygrs.

Others think it would put vape stores out of business, and shouldn’t be an outright ban.

“I think that they could put, you know, restrictor stipulations without completely banning them. Because it is a little bit more marketed towards youth instead of the adults,” said Benjamin Nandin, who works at Pipeline Smokeshop.

Health officials have another warning for parents…kids are selling it to each other.

“Our youth are really entrepreneurs, they are familiar with e-commerce so they know how to order online and sell to each other,” Irvin said.

Menthol and mint flavors are not part of the ban.

The DOH says teachers are now informing kindergartners of the dangers of e-cigs and vaping because their Elementary school peers have been using them too.

The senate has passed the bill. The house finance committee will hear it in the coming days, we’ll let you know when a hearing is scheduled.

