March 25, 2019

Dear Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development,

My name is Matt Alvarez, and I am a Junior at Shadow Ridge High School in , Nevada. I, along with the undersigned Clark County high school students support SB 263, a bill that will increase the price of e- cigarettes/vapor products. Increasing the price of these products has proven to reduce their use since it makes them too expensive for students like me and my peers to buy.

The U.S. Surgeon General recently declared "e-cigarette use among youth is an epidemic." According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the use of electronic cigarettes among high school students nationwide is up 78 percent in the past year from 11.7 percent in 2017 to 20.8 percent in 2018. The latest Nevada Youth Risk Behavior Survey (2017) which tracks tobacco use among middle and high school students, shows that approximately 50 percent of high school seniors have tried an electronic cigarette.

A recent study also found that 63 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. did not know that a popular vapor product used by many young people contained nicotine. We have watched our peers who never smoked a regular cigarette before becoming addicted to nicotine because of these e-cigarettes/vapor products. We are here today because we want our generation to live a productive and healthy life that doesn’t include a lifelong addiction to nicotine.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Matt Alvarez Ishwari Shindei Tyler Modee Kael Landenberg Jason Heredia Bailey Ahuna Michael Renick Christian Owens Evanna Gamboa Erika Brown David Rogers Latasha Webb Hannah Rodriguez Jayden Lewis Angela Gutierrez Anthony Robles Sterling Penny Tori Kahele Guivelly Vega Alan Salame Ella White

Shadow Ridge High School Coronado High School Legacy High School Sunrise Mountain High School West CT Academy Centennial High School South East CT Academy Cimarron-Memorial High School Sierra Vista High School Bonanza High School Chaparral High School Eldorado High School Valley High School Basic High School Veteran’s Tribute Academy Silverado High School Foothill High School Somerset Academy