Lindsay Fox/ecigarettereviewed.com
Kinney Drugs has announced the company will no longer sell electronic cigarettes or vaping products as part of their effort to prevent minors from having access to nicotine.
These changes will take effect at their Northern New York retail stores on August 1, while the changes have already taken effect in the state of Vermont at the beginning of this week, the company said in a news release.
Kinney Drugs operates almost 100 stores in New York and Vermont. Its Cortland location sits at 14 Clinton Ave.
Officials say the decision is in response to the new and disturbing statistics showing that vaping products are increasingly being used by teenagers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tobacco use among children has grown to nearly 38 percent between 2017 and 2018, which has been driven largely by the use of electronic cigarettes. Among the increasing percentage of teens and children using electronic cigarettes, 78 percent are high school students and 48 percent are middle school-age children.
“We would like to thank Kinney Drugs for taking this important step,” said Franklin Fry, Executive Director of the American Heart Association in Syracuse. “Actions like this can help prevent our children from starting a deadly habit.”
