Vaping 5 Years Later

Several residential treatment programs have popped up to help people addicted to vaping. It’s become big business with a meaningful shift from smoking to vaping and a rising concern among public policymakers, educators and parents that vaping is going to rob young people years of quality life.

Back in 2015, my 9th grader came home saying that several girls asked her to vape in the bathroom, that “because you only made the freshman field hockey team…you might as well give up on sports and be cool ….” The epidemic was quietly finding its way into middle schools and the healthcare system had to adjust with new clinical protocols for vaping-related emergencies, and business protocols. For instance, vaping was not typically an option doctors could select when needing to note a patient’s possible substance use. The options for smoking or drinking alcohol were there but with the vaping epidemic, it became an issue. Paola Sandroni, PhD, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, said they added vaping to their queries.

“I am afraid vaping should be considered at the same level of risk as illegal substances that oftentimes kill due to the mixing of ingredients, rather than the drug itself,” Sandroni said. “Who knows what is used in the mix?!” Michigan became the first state to ban flavored e-cigarettes and New York state wanted to ban shops from opening. Vaping has been used as a sensation tool effective to quit smoking, yet the marketing towards young kids has been extremely harmful, according to 91% of 372 middle school and high school counselors in our poll who say, “it’s showing up in bathrooms and locker-rooms” and “it’s now just what kids do.” They are marketed towards kids with flavors and unknown chemicals causing a mysterious disease in the lungs. “Regulated products, bad as they may be, at least must have a known list of ingredients, so you can always trace back to them if there is a bad batch,’ Sandroni notes. ‘But here we are all in the dark.”