{"id":2450548,"date":"2019-10-31T01:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T07:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/1a-a-simple-step-to-address-addiction\/"},"modified":"2019-10-31T11:26:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T17:26:54","slug":"1a-a-simple-step-to-address-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/1a-a-simple-step-to-address-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"1A: A simple step to address addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It is alarming to me that Colorado has the highest rate of youth e-cigarette use in the nation, and Pitkin County schools have some of the highest use rates in the state.<\/p>\n

As a physician, it is also alarming there is a current national epidemic with over 1,600 cases of e-cigarette-linked severe lung disease reported in 49 states, and 34 confirmed deaths. Colorado has had 11 confirmed cases, and one death (being confirmed). I know our valley is not immune, in fact it is at high risk given the local stats.<\/p>\n

Overwhelming. What can we do individually and collectively?<\/p>\n

One simple step at a time: Vote for 1A to pass a nicotine tax.<\/p>\n

Fight to help our youth avoid nicotine addiction. CDC research has shown that increasing price per pack of cigarettes is associated with a significant decrease in youth smoking rates. Surprisingly, there are no current taxes on vaping products \u2014 \u201cyes\u201d on 1A will work to decrease vaping rates in a similar way as cigarettes have shown. Also, Colorado is in the lowest quartile of all states for cigarette tax at only 84 cents\/pack \u2014 we can normalize this with many other states where cigarette tax is close to $3 per pack and NY at $4.35\/pack.<\/p>\n

Act locally now to address addiction issues in our valley. A nicotine tax will provide critical local funds for public health programs that address our widespread substance abuse, addiction and mental health problems in our valley.<\/p>\n

The national epidemic on vaping-related severe lung disease feels frightening. As the medical community sorts through this alarming problem and draws connections and causes, any measure to prevent continued use is the right step.<\/p>\n

The county will create uniform policy. Passing 1A will fill in the gaps between Aspen and Basalt, both of which have already passed tobacco taxes.<\/p>\n

Vote \u201cyes\u201d on 1A November ballot.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Levin, MD<\/p>\n

Aspen<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is alarming to me that Colorado has the highest rate of youth e-cigarette use in the nation, and Pitkin County schools have some of the highest use rates in the state. As a physician, it is also alarming there is a current national epidemic with over 1,600 cases of e-cigarette-linked severe lung disease reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 10:41:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450576,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450548\/revisions\/2450576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}