| West Virginia, according to most national studies, has the highest rate of smoking.
It also has the highest or near highest rate of addiction to drugs other than nicotine.
Aiming to prevent young West Virginians from smoking, the WV Senate passed a comprehensive tobacco bill that includes increasing the age to purchase tobacco products to 21 and making it a crime to smoke in a vehicle with a child present.
Tobacco lobbyists have been in full force at the capitol, and some Republicans are protesting the bill, saying it infringes on personal liberties, calling it "Orwellian."
The bill adds language to better define e-cigarettes and vape products and increases fines for the sale of tobacco to those underage. If someone under age 21 is caught smoking, they can also be fined $50 or have their driver's license suspended for 30 days.
The bill also makes it a crime to smoke in an enclosed vehicle with a child under age 17 present. The crime is a secondary traffic offense, meaning law enforcement officers cannot pull someone over just for smoking in the presence of a child. The fine is $25.
Sen. Azinger (R) said the ban on smoking in a vehicle is the state is supplanting a parent's authority to make a decision on how to parent.
Sen. Paul Hardesty, D-Logan, voted in favor of the bill after sharing a personal story of driving from Logan to Barboursville every Sunday with his parents chain smoking in the car. He said he threw up in the same spot every Sunday due to lack of air and the windy road.
His father died of lung cancer and his mother has COPD. He said if they had known about the effects of secondhand smoke, they probably wouldn't have subjected him to it.
"This is not about us â this is about children," Hardesty said. "Children are exposed to situations they cannot control."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children exposed to secondhand smoke have increased rates of school absences, bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and asthma attacks.
The bill passed 20-14. It now goes to the House for consideration.
Health officials say that student vaping has reached an epidemic level in WV.
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