TAMPA, Fla. — The parents of a Sarasota teenager are suing one of the popular e-cigarette manufacturers.
Jared and Erin NesSmith filed a class-action lawsuit against Juul saying the company unlawfully marketed the products to their child.
Their daughter, Ashlynn was 14 years old when she started vaping and didn't know the products contained nicotine. By her sophomore year of high school, she was using a pod a day, which contains as much nicotine as one pack of cigarettes.
It got so bad, she fell asleep in class one day and had a seizure.
"I couldn’t go to class because I was either falling asleep or having seizures so I just had to stay home," explained Ashlynn.
Erin NesSmith and her husband decided to home-school their daughter as she repeats her sophomore year because vaping is too tempting for Ashlynn as she continues to battle her addiction.
It's not just parents fighting the vaping epidemic.
On Thursday, Tampa State Rep. Jackie Toledo joined doctors and Hillsborough School Board members at Tampa General Hospital to discuss her new bill aimed at protecting children from the vaping epidemic.
Toledo filed a bill to raise the legal age to buy vaping and tobacco products to 21.
If Representative Toledo's bill passes, Florida would join eight other states and Washington D.C. in raising the age limit for buying vaping products to 21.
Just last week, Hillsborough County Commissioners agreed to look into raising the age to 21 in Hillsborough County.
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