Lawmakers are again considering hefty taxes on e-cigarettes to discourage the use of the electronic devices that have grown significantly among Hawaii youth.

Gearing up for next year’s legislative session, legislators heard Thursday from Hawaii health officials and teens on the effects the electronic gadgets in their communities.

Baldwin High School sophomore Isabelle Collier, 15, described to lawmakers the prevalence of vaping in the Maui community. Nearly one out of three Maui high school students use e-Cigs, according to the state Health Department.

“In our community I see elementary school kids vaping,” she said, adding that even though it is illegal for children under the age of 21 to use e-cigarettes, there is no enforcement. “Parents or family members are allowing kids to use their vapes. You can tell people are middle-school age and police just walk past and don’t do anything. As people, you always have a want or need to fit in. By vaping, it makes them fit in with their friends and adults and makes them feel a lot older than they really are.”

Punahou School senior Sarah Kay, 18, told lawmakers that she was even able to buy online so-called e-juice used in the vaping devices without a problem.

“I kept waiting to get ID’d. I just wanted to demonstrate how easy it is for youth to bypass the kind of regulations they have,” she said. “What they don’t know is what they’re consuming can actually be really harmful to them. Even if its said to be nicotine free that might not actually be the case. It’s potentially putting life-damaging, harmful chemicals into their bodies.”

Both teens said they had friends who are modeling e-cigarettes on social media and actually get paid to use the electronic devices that are heavily marketed to adolescents with Hawaii specific flavors such as mango and pineapple.

“Flavors make the poison go down easier,” said Robert Proctor, a Stanford professor who wrote the book, “Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition.”

An estimated 45 percent of high school students and 26 percent of middle schoolers across the state said they have used e-cigarettes, according to the Health Department.

“It is not that difficult to get for even our middle-­school students,” said Lola Irvin, the Department of Health’s Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Division administrator.

Hawaii was the first state to raise the smoking age requirement to 21 in 2016, but lawmakers say more must be done to protect the public health. Legislators unsuccessfully sought to pass a bill in 2015 that would’ve levied an 80 percent sales tax on e-cigarettes.

“We really need to tax e-cigarettes. They ought to be taxed at the same rate as other tobacco products,” said Sen. Roz Baker, (D, South-West Maui), chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health. “(The tax) needs to be meaningful.”

She added that lawmakers also are looking at increasing the permit and license fees for retailers that sell e-cigarettes and at banning internet sales to Hawaii.

“The kids are telling me they can buy them at 7-Elevens and those kind of convenience stores. Clearly the harm is there,” Baker said. “We see how they’re marketing to kids. That’s why kids are attracted to it. It’s a gadget. It’s something cool. It’s like a new iPhone but better. It’s harmful to the environment. It’s harmful to the body. It’s harmful to the brain and it impacts your pocketbook.”