Hi, I’m Montana Haney, and I’m a senior at Ninnekah High School. I have worked with other YAHL members in my school to educate others on Counteract Tobacco.

Counteract Tobacco is a campaign within YAHL. It works to remove tobacco-control preemption from Oklahoma, meaning that local communities could pass their own tobacco control ordinances to protect the health of residents. With this campaign, we also work to remove the power from Big Tobacco's hands.

Me and a fellow YAHL member, Haley, did a presentation to the Ninnekah Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce members were very surprised by the statistics we displayed. We told them about how kids in the community have started to get better at hiding vaping. They all agreed that there was a serious problem that they hadn’t realized as much before. There happened to be a city council member at the meeting who also knew the principal of Chickasha High School. He encouraged us to talk to them and agreed that this is a big problem amongst communities. He has invited us to do a city council meeting to educate other elected leaders in our community.

I’m passionate about this because I have a lot of younger family members, and vaping has become popular amongst crowds. There are a lot of kids convincing others that vaping is cool, encouraging others to do it as well. This causes many health problems that are irreversible and can lead to addiction as well.

Growing up, I always saw my grandma with her cigarettes, and always smoking indoors. My mom grew up in this type of household, causing her to get addicted as a teen. She still battles the addiction constantly, and I see firsthand how hard it has made recovery for her. Last year, we lost my grandma, and we knew she was officially gone when she quit breathing for over 5 minutes. The damage she had done while smoking for years made it nearly impossible to get her breathing again.

This is why I am so close to the Counteract Tobacco campaign. It has so much meaning to my family and me. I want to make a change within the community and help make future generations healthier.

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By: Montana Haney, Ninnekah