The proposal, which is sitting in the House Rules Committee, would also establish a tobacco retailer permitting system, meaning that businesses would need a permit from the NC ABC Commission to sell tobacco legally. Those retailers would then be on the hook for checking photo identification for proof of age.
Charlene Zorn is the stepmother of Solomon Wynn. He died in Wilmington in 2023 at the age of 15 from complications of vaping.
“The last two plus years of our life has been a living hell. I have spent the last two years advocating for everyone else's children so nobody goes through what my family's been through. I'm working with North Carolina Alliance for Health, Representative Donnie Loftis out of Gaston County and Senator Gale Adcock out of Wake County to pass what we're calling Solly’s Law, which will protect our kids, which will raise the age to purchase nicotine products and vape products and tobacco to 21 to meet the federal law,” she said.
Within a short period of time, Zorn said Solomon went from being a healthy high school freshman playing football to someone who could barely walk to his bus stop. After seeing a pediatric pulmonologist, he was diagnosed with issues related to vaping where he had to try different medications to get him back on his feet. Those didn’t work so they did a CT scan of heart and lungs – which were found to be surrounded by fluid.
Next steps were to see a cardiologist but later that week he collapsed at home. They rushed him to the hospital but his body couldn’t recover.
Zorn said she tells Solomon’s story so that other students and their families know what could happen to their loved ones who vape and use tobacco products. While she knows that Solomon’s case seems rare, the more she tells this story, the more people reach out to her.
“I've learned that once you've done one piece of media, everyone finds you. So I've gotten calls from people all over the country, or I've had people send me a story. [For example], there's a lady in Las Vegas whose daughter was a cheerleader and collapsed and was diagnosed with popcorn lungs, which is what Solomon died from. It destroys your lungs. The only way Solomon would have survived had he not collapsed the day he did, he would have needed an entire, complete heart and lung transplant(s),” she said.
New Hanover County school board member Tim Merrick is on Zorn’s committee to help support the bill. He’s worried about the district’s students who use tobacco or vape. He doesn’t want to see any other child die from these complications, and to make sure other parents never have to go through what Zorn did.
“Addiction is a very real problem in the United States, and many times it starts with tobacco. Tobacco is a very difficult thing to get off of and once you start self medicating as a youth, it rewires the brain into needing some sort of change in order to help you to cope,” he said.
Both Merrick and Zorn are working on getting NHCS data on students who are caught using tobacco products on campus. Zorn said she tried getting it from the NHC Sheriff’s Office but they told her they don’t have clear numbers.
Zorn and Merrick are also disturbed by the continued marketing toward children by offering them vapes that are Star Wars-themed or producing tobacco-based vapes in various flavors like cherry or mango.
While trying to build the case for Solly’s Law, Zorn said the next step is to have a committee hearing for it. She said they’re trying to advocate with Representative John Bell who chairs the Rules, Calendar, and Operations Committee to schedule it – and she’s hoping more New Hanover County government entities sign a resolution of her request.
“We have over 133 signed resolutions from different entities around the state. Currently, we do not have a single one out of New Hanover County. We should be ashamed of ourselves,” she said.
North Carolina is one of seven states that still allow people to buy tobacco at 18 — and one of nine states without a tobacco retailer licensing system. Zorn said she likes to point out that it’s unlawful for even U.S. soldiers to use tobacco products unless they’re 21. But because most enforcement agencies, like ALE, operate under state and not federal law, enforcement is less effective.
