BATON ROUGE - Two bills aimed to curb smoking and vaping in Louisiana; both intended to increase taxes, but only one of them made it out of committee.

Nearly one in three high school students in Louisiana use e-cigarettes. Paige McCrory is an eighth grade teacher in Rapides Parish, and she says teenagers she works with are already addicted to using vape products, as early as 13 years old.

"Vaping has reached a crisis level," McCrory said. "They're not even getting real vapes. Some are getting pods that people are putting, who knows what in them. Sometimes it's even alcohol. They vape alcohol. They vape whatever they can."

Age alone isn't stopping teens from getting their hands on products only legal for people 21 and up. Lawmakers considered two bills Tuesday intended to reduce the number of people using traditional and electronic cigarettes.

"What we're seeing is simple, tax goes up, smoking use goes down, health outcomes go up," Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans said.

The first bill from Ascension Parish Representative Ken Brass could raise a tax on vape products from 15 cents per milliliter to 33 cents.

Conservative-leaning lawmakers opposed raising the tax. They were skeptical that a tax increase might deter teens from using the product.

That bill passed, but a similar one from Rep. Mandie Landry would have increased the total tax per pack of 20 cigarettes by 33 cents.

"Rarely does increasing price help deal with people's addictions," Rep. Jack Galle', R-Mandeville said. "There's more to it than that."

Instead of increasing taxes, some lawmakers suggested providing more education about the dangers of using the products.

Another bill from Rep. Brass would dedicate a portion of taxes placed on smokeless tobacco toward cancer research.