"It was designed for adults to have an alternative from smoking cigarettes," said Bruso. "It was a good idea; it just filtered down to a bad thing in our middle schools and high schools."
That was the main message that Erie County Legislator John Bruso wanted to convey last night - that lawmakers and parents need to do a better job of keeping vaping devices out of the hands of young people.
"I will say that's not the only answer - raising the age to 21," he said. "There is the marketing end of it, the flavor end of it, all of those things need to be looked at."
When asked what the most striking statistic is when it comes to adolescents and vaping, Jonathan Chaffee, who serves as reality check coordinator for Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegheny Counties, had no hesitation.
"We have a resource officer in our Lancaster Middle School, and he does on occasion, we are finding vapes at that age and as young as our sixth grade building," said O'Brien. "In a lot of cases, when a teenager starts in vaping, it leads to tobacco products later on as they get older."
"Get educated, get aware," said Gwendolyn Bork of the F.O.C.U.S coalition. "We aren't here to target anybody or to put any vaping companies out of business; we're here to collaborate, work together and protect our kids."