Big Tobacco is after your kids
According to peer-reviewed scientific research, eliminating the sale of flavored tobacco will help smokers quit and prevent kids from getting addicted.
That is why it was sad to see the Editorial Board at the Lake County Record-Bee fall victim to what can be characterized as a tobacco industry hit piece against the regulation of America’s most addictive and deadly products (Menthol ban a bad, harmful idea. March 22, 2022).
Would you consider it “foolish overreach” of the government to remove from retail shelves a batch of tainted baby food, or lettuce contaminated with salmonella? But it is precisely this type of regulations that the editorial board seems to dislike.
We have come to expect regulations to protect our health, such as eliminating the sale of lead paint, or cancer-causing pesticides. The FDA authority to eliminate the sale of flavored tobacco is because the science shows that flavored tobacco makes smoking more attractive to children, and more addictive for adults. Addiction means you can’t stop even when you try. Addiction is what makes tobacco use so deadly.
The anti-regulatory stance in the Bee is based on conjecture by third party sources that receive direct funding from big tobacco companies. This is clearly biased toward the tobacco industry when we are talking about protecting kids from addiction.
We think it is important to prevent kids from getting addicted to nicotine, and we know from the science that eliminating the sale of flavored tobacco can do that. Learn more by visiting www.flavorshookkids.org.
Jay McCubbrey, Ph.D., Project Director Tobacco-Free North Coast
Editor’s Note: Thanks for your input, the editorial you referenced was actually published in one of our sister publications from the Southern California News Group and reprinted in our newspaper. The Record-Bee’s op-ed page strives to present different viewpoints from a wide array of sources, but only the articles credited to the editorial board of the Lake County Record-Bee represent our editorial board’s official positions.
Democracy is hard work.
Democracy is hard work. It takes constant vigilance and participation. Those in the Middletown Unified School District know this well. For the past several months, a small group of citizens have bullied, threatened and undermined the hard work of teachers, administrators and school board members. Why? because they have not learned the basic civic lesson, that some things must be done for the good of all. I applaud the individuals who spoke up either in letters or in person at the most recent Middletown School Board meeting, letting the community and the current board members know that they have had enough of this constant badgering, manipulation of standard policy and procedure and disrespectful behavior. What goes on in any one of our school districts affects all residents of Lake County.
If you are approached by someone from this group to sign a petition, stop and ask yourself if you want to contribute to more chaos in the school district, more manipulation of a well-established system and another costly recall action against the legally appointed, very qualified and newest member of the board, Chris Ochs. These same petitioners have wasted precious school funding on one special election because they would not abide by the decisions of the current, legally installed school board. They are engaged in tactics that waste the precious time of those who are actively and professionally involved in the process of educating students. It takes only a few signatures, less than 2% of the voting population to activate a costly recall. Don’t contribute your signature to an unwise, unneeded, misguided and expensive petition that serves no real purpose. Let the current board get on with their important work.
—Mary Borjon, Kelseyville
