Big Tobacco is Exploiting AAPI Youth for Profit. Here’s How.

by Dr. Pamela m ling Professor at the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Californians recently stood up to the tobacco industry and voted to end the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and vapes. Voters upheld Senate Bill (SB) 793 by voting “Yes” on Proposition (Prop) 31, which prevents retailers from selling these products, and makes it harder for Big Tobacco to prey on and profit off of kids and other targeted communities.

California’s new flavored tobacco law marks a significant victory for California’s Asian American communities, especially young Asian Americans, as Big Tobacco has a deceptive strategy of making tobacco seem like a normal part of our culture, and has been effective in getting young Asian Americans to vape.

The tobacco industry has long considered the Asian American population a “potential gold mine” due to high rates of smoking in Asia and the Pacific, thereby labeling this community as being “predisposed toward smoking.”

For decades, Big Tobacco has placed more advertising on billboards and inside stores in neighborhoods where people who predominantly identify as Asian American shop, and often co-opt cultural holidays like Lunar New Year to masquerade their multi-million-dollar marketing machine as support and celebration of these unique cultures and communal experiences.,, Looking back to what got us to this momentous point, there is no denying that the tobacco industry has reduced their view of the vibrant and diverse Asian Californian communities to only one thing — profits.

The tobacco industry targets Asian teens and young adults by advertising their products with flavors like lychee, guava, and passion fruit, and sponsoring cultural events important to Asian communities. They also design vapes as sleek and high-tech specifically to appeal to tech savvy young people. These tactics work: among Asian youth in California who report currently using flavored vapes, 73% indicated that fruit was the flavor they used most often. The fresh, sweet taste is a trap the tobacco industry uses to get youth hooked on tobacco and once hooked, they can battle that addiction for life. in Filipino.

When it comes to young people and the dangers of vaping, what’s important to know is that vapes can harm the body and mind. Not only are flavors a trap but vapes have been engineered by the tobacco industry to be as addictive as possible. Nicotine, which is as addictive as heroin, is poison for the developing brain, and rewires it to crave more.

Nicotine can also cause lasting damage to adolescent brains — increasing anxiety, irritability, and mood swings.

Vaping may also put young people at higher risk of chronic lung issues such as asthma and bronchitis.

Ending the sale of flavored tobacco brings us significantly closer to creating a California in which all communities and future generations are free from the tobacco industry’s predatory, and deadly, hold. Anyone looking to quit vaping, can text “KICK TOBACCO” to 66819 or visit KickItCA.org for free support.

“We need to take into account what we had agreed upon and take stock of the discussions and decide which ones to prioritize, none of which we’ve done yet because we keep going out of the country.”

Despite this, he said they have already confirmed the Philippine delegation’s attendance to this year’s APEC, which will be held in the United States in November. Marcos Jr. did not say if his planned state visit to the U.S. this year would push through.

Marcos Jr., the jet-setter Since he assumed office in June last year, Marcos had gone on eight official travels — a mix of state visits and official trips to international conferences. He was in Indonesia and Singapore for state visits in the first week of September, before flying to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

The chief executive also went on a weekend trip to Singapore for the Formula One Grand Prix in October. In the face of criticism for being abroad while a typhoon was battering parts of the country, Marcos Jr. said the trip was “the best way to drum up business.”

In November, he went to Cambodia for the ASEAN Summit and then attended the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation meeting held in Thailand.

He ended 2022 with a trip to Belgium for the ASEAN-

European Union Commemorative Summit and started the year with a state visit to China.

Just last week, Marcos Jr. came back from a trip to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. He was criticized after the Philippine delegation reportedly had 70 members, prompting the public to ask – who foots the bill for these trips?

‘Return of investment’

“I don’t have the figures,” Marcos Jr. said when asked about the cost of his trips and the number of individuals in the official and the unofficial entourages.

Citing investment pledges, most of which have yet to come to fruition, Marcos Jr. just emphasized that the official travels are important because of the business he brings back.

“[In] terms of the cost, the way I see it, you have to look at it in terms of [return of investment]. Do we bring something back or do we not?” Marcos said.

He also added that apart from his Cabinet secretaries and their respective staff members and security, the Philippine delegation is also formed by members of the private sector –most of whom, he says, spend their own money during their travels.

“There’s accountability and transparency in everything that we do,” Marcos Jr. said.

“The critics will have their say but those who are actually contemplating putting good money into the Philippines have other issues and accountability and transparency is not an issue,” he adds. g