Juul will pay NC $40M. Invest it - and more - in NC youth to prevent future addiction

Tobacco spending

The writer is Chief of Cardiology at Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute.

As a cardiologist, I regularly see the devastating long-term health impact of tobacco use. As a father of teenagers, I am concerned we have not seen the end of tobacco use, as e-cigarettes have become so popular with young people. Young people are getting addicted to tobacco quickly, impacting the developing brain. They often move to other tobacco products.

JUUL, a popular e-cigarette company, will pay North Carolina $40 million to use for e-cigarette prevention education and research. North Carolina also receives approximately $140 million each year that should also be used for this purpose.

The N.C. legislature should do the right thing: Invest this money in young people and prevent a lifetime of addiction.

Dr. Sanjeev Gulati, Charlotte

Election integrity

The U.S. leads the world in living out the meaning of “we the people” and “all are created equal” — a hard journey. But slaves found citizenship, women and African Americas the right to vote, and minorities equal civil rights.

Countries stand in awe at these deeds. However, our brightest light in their eyes is our peaceful transfer of presidential power. Fortunately, our November election was in the opinion of many experts and courts of law the safest and most successful in our history.

I encourage all Americans to keep our electoral processes free from fears we’ve spent decades overcoming. Let us keep clearly in view the prize of a diverse and inclusive democracy we were created to be.

Zach Thomas, Charlotte

An echo chamber

This perverse pretense by Republican lawmakers that their tampering with perfectly valid election laws is for the purpose of restoring the lost faith of their constituents is nothing short of ludicrous.

It would be far less cumbersome and more valuable if they stopped being agents of Trump’s lies and simply told their followers the truth, that there was no rigging or widespread cheating in the 2020 election. Nothing built on a lie can ever have value, and this self-serving slavish echo chamber needs to stop.

Pat Kunder, Charlotte

Spending priorities

As Charlotte debates funding for a new stadium for the Carolina Panthers, we would like to suggest that there are much higher and necessary priorities.

One far better use for funds is transit. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CATS stopped charging fares, making sure that residents were still able to access work and essential services. Extending this looks like an easy win.

Other larger transit projects are coming up, which would go even farther to increase mobility for more citizens throughout the region.

Investing in transit connects more neighborhoods to opportunity, which is vital in our city with such a wide gap between the wealthiest and poorest among us.

Bill Staton, Charlotte

Teaching CRT

Critical Race Theory should never be taught in elementary school. Elementary school children will accept each other on the basis of the same interest, both intellectually and socially.

Why interpret their innocence at such an early age? Middle school is early enough and even then in ninth grade.

The better approach is to study the culture of students by allowing them to express their culture through language, dress, religion, customs, music, and other culture mores. There is plenty of time to teach hard racial facts.

Gwendolyn McGowens, Charlotte

Shark fins

The writer is a senior field representative with Oceana.

It’s Shark Week! As families tune in for this annual summer tradition, it’s important to remember that sharks are in trouble.

The demand for shark fins incentivizes overfishing and shark finning, the cruel practice of removing a shark’s fins at sea and throwing the shark back, where it drowns, starves to death, or is eaten alive by other fish. Fins from as many as 73 million sharks end up in the market every year.

I call on Congress to remove the U.S. from the shark fin trade once and for all by passing the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act. We need a fin ban now.

Randy Sturgill, Wilmington