Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I am an emergency physician trained in humanitarian disaster aid and a public health expert, and I represent California's 36th Congressional District. As a doctor, I am all too familiar with the devastation that addiction to nicotine can cause, devastation such as strokes, heart attack, COPD, and patients coming in with 100 percent oxygen because they can't breathe without it. I have seen, firsthand, the health decline in patients who tried nicotine as teenagers, who got addicted and never quit. When we talk about vaping, we need to make sure we identify three different problems: One is the problem of the acute respiratory distress syndrome, that caused by open containers where they can mix different types of chemicals, including THC, that have the vitamin E oils that can cause severe lung damage that requires lung transplant. That is one issue. Another issue is whether or not there is a public benefit or whether or not vaping is safe. It is not. That is a general conversation. This bill addresses the third issue, which is that kids using these products are getting addicted at an alarming rate. The number of kids using these products is disturbing to me as a Member of Congress, as a physician, and as a parent of two young kids. From 2017 to 2019, e-cigarette use doubled among high school students and tripled among middle school students.…”