This post was originally published on this site.
To the Editor:
As I read the article about Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh passing 11 stores that sell tobacco (âWalsh wants a law to curb tobacco sales,â July18, 2023), we couldnât help thinking about the irony of this.
On the one hand, and with good reason, tobacco and vaping should be and has been targeted as being bad for teens and preteens.
On the other hand, our state is legalizing and totally accepting marijuana. Where is any sense in this? Forty years ago, we didnât imagine how bad tobacco was for your health. We wised up and at least made teens aware of it. Now 40 years (or way less) from now, we will wonder … what were we thinking in terms of pot?
The science is so much clearer now. We know it is detrimental to teen developing brains, it affects decision-making and emotional growth. It is detrimental to pregnancy, but by the time a woman knows she is pregnant, she may have been smoking for a good portion of her pregnancy. We also know that as much as we hope to limit potâs use to 18 and older, it will be ingested by much younger people. And we know that the current marijuana is much more potent than 15 years ago.
What in the world are we thinking?
Anne and Robert Hickman
North Syracuse
Related:
Where can you smoke at the NYS Fair? New rules push tobacco, cannabis use off the fairgrounds
Syracuseâs tobacco license scheme wonât stop youth vaping (Guest Opinion by Kent Sopris)
Health commissioner: Fewer sellers means less exposure to slick tobacco marketing (Your Letters)