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Schools Struggle with Vaping Explosion
- truculation 8y agoWhat should the vaping kids do instead of vaping?
- neaden 8y agoPreferably just breathe normal air? As in don't replace it with any other drug.
- truculation 8y agoI'm not sure that abstinence works. Btw you know of course that many boys are put on officially-sanctioned drugs at school? Should we put them on those drugs instead?
- neaden 8y agoAre you trying to segue into a discussion on over prescription of ADHD medication? I don't really see what the one has to do with the other but sure, they are both problems. But you can't just say two things are drugs so they are equal. I take a drug first thing every morning for my allergies for instance. Edit: You edited your reply after I started. I think abstinence works fine for something like nicotine. Unlike say sex humans don't have any innate craving for nicotine, I've never consumed it in my entire life and I don't feel like I've missed out on anything.
- truculation 8y agoIt's because you've never consumed it that you don't miss it.
- neaden 8y agoI think you are being unclear here. I took your remark on abstinence to be a reference to abstinence only sex education, as I think most readers did. If you are asking how we can help teens with a nicotine addiction to break it then there are a variety of ways that have been shown to work in helping someone break addiction, so schools, parents, and healthcare providers can support those.
- truculation 8y agoThe article begs to differ. They fear a whole new generation of nicotine addicts. Hence my question. Btw, do you know if schools in the U.S. sell sweets? (My school used to have a 'tuck shop' for this purpose).
- neaden 8y agoI don't see how the article disagrees with what I just said. I really think you are being unclear here in what you are trying to say. Are you asking specifically what should schools due to assist nicotine users to quit, or something else?
- ebbv 8y agoAbstinence isn't effective? For sex maybe. For smoking it is, though. It's the most successful method of quitting.
- truculation 8y agoYes but what's the success rate?
- ebbv 8y agoThe success rate of never smoking/vaping in the first place is 100%. The success rate of quitting is really up to the individual, much like weight loss or other self improvement stuff. But even if it's hard it's the thing you should do. I'm really not sure what you're arguing. "Quitting is hard and a lot of people fail so .. don't quit." That's some lame mentality right there.
- truculation 8y ago>"Quitting is hard and a lot of people fail so .. don't quit." No, I asked: what should vaping be replaced with?
- ebbv 8y agoOh my god are you serious with this? I’m gonna guess from the quality of this exchange you vape.
- dang 8y agoWould you please do a better job of following the site guidelines? You frequently either cross the line or straddle it. By doing this, you damage the community in its most vulnerable place. I'm sure you wouldn't do that with other shared resources, and since you use HN, we'd appreciate your helping to take care of it as well, even when other comments are annoying, wrong, or absurd. Especially then. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- WalterSear 8y agoPerhaps live in the here and now? As in don't expect people not to be humans.
- amelius 8y agoprogramming!
- truculation 8y agoYes a programming problem certainly can occupy the previously-bored mind -- but is that an option in school?
- Robotbeat 8y agoI used to program my calculator while bored in school.
- truculation 8y agoAh, sounds good. On a related note these days I think most kids are banned from using cellphones in school. So they'd have to purchase a separate calculator.
- droidist2 8y agoRead the bible
- truculation 8y agoDo you mean to imply that religious faith offers a way out of addiction or that (for example) the Book of Job is really really interesting?
- forgottenpass 8y agoI think it's sarcasm pointing out how detached from practicality some of the comments here seem and/or how terrible teen mass-intervention programs are in general. I don't remember the finer details of anti-drug propaganda from school that well anymore, but I do remember my anger at how patronizing, insulting and obviously ineffective most of it was. And how it often used the exact same manipulation tactics that DARE told us drug-pushers would try to use on us. Why, when people grow up, do they not remember the well intentioned but misguided intervention programs they were subject to in their own youth?
- droidist2 8y agoYes, it was sarcasm. Either way it's interesting I got flagged for that.
- testplzignore 8y agoThere was a golden era about 10 years ago where it looked like smoking was finally going to be conquered. The cessation aids were working. Smoking rates were plummeting. It wasn't cool anymore. It was no longer an impossible problem - people could quit and never look back. Then vaping screwed it all up. I hate the myth - which I assumed is being propagated by the companies that profit off of it - that vaping was a replacement for smoking, and that people who vape would otherwise smoke. No. There was a clear period of time between when smoking was on its deathbed and when vaping exploded.
- teamhappy 8y agoYou seem to completely ignore that a large fraction of people relapse.
- Domenic_S 8y ago> No. Yes. In my social circle a whole bunch of us switched from smoking a pack+/day to vaping, about 10 years ago.
- refurb 8y agoHumans like mind-altering substances. I can guarantee you that if tobacco disappeared and vaping didn't exist these kids would just be drinking or smoking pot.
- strictnein 8y agoBut vaping isn't smoking. It's a similar looking, but significantly different activity that carries almost none of the health risks associated with smoking, both firsthand and secondhand.
- skybrian 8y agoIf they're having trouble quitting, the obvious thing to do is lower the nicotine level, eventually to zero.
- billfruit 8y agoVideo games, perhaps.
- neaden 8y agoI think it is very important for everyone to keep in mind that vaping is probably safer than smoking. But it might not be, we don't know for sure. And it is certainly worse than not consuming any tobacco product. So trying to encourage active smokers to switch to vaping is probably beneficial, but increasing overall tobacco consumption rates is bad.
- lemonberry 8y agoMy father's been smoking for over 50 years. I got him to switch to mostly vaping last year. The difference in his health has been profound. It almost eliminated his coughing, increased his ability to walk distances. His doctor was amazed at his last checkup. She said she couldn't recommend it to patients due to the uncertainties, but encouraged him to keep doing whatever it is that he's doing. Edit: I bought him the vape after a friend that's been smoking for a long time made the switch and raved about the benefits. I don't doubt that the best course of action is to quit altogether, but a 50+ year addiction is pretty difficult to quit. It can be done but you really have to want it. I don't think my dad really wanted to quit. I know that seems silly, but given his circumstances I can understand.
- LordKano 8y agoI smoked for about 18 years and I made the switch to vaping a few years ago. I haven't completely given up tobacco smoking but I have cut back tremendously. I tried to quit several times, I tried the gum, the patches, Chantix and cold turkey. None of them allowed me to successfully quit. Vaping was good enough to temper the nicotine cravings enough that I could otherwise function without regular smoking. I have cut back on nicotine content over the years. Now, I'm using the lowest nicotine content liquid that I find readily available. The next step is to mix it with 0 nicotine liquid until I can make another attempt at quitting. I agree that non-smokers (especially children) shouldn't do it because it can lead to nicotine addiction but for smokers, it's a miracle product.
- jfoutz 8y agoThree weeks no tobacco. Stepping down nicotine today. I don’t like vaping much. But it has made it much easier to ramp down. I still want a cigarette every once in a while, but I think that’s going to pass in the next month or two. At least enough for me to quit the vape as well. I’d never recommend one to a nonsmoker. But, for me, it has been an effective way out of a vice. If anyone wants out, it has been working for me. Definitely worth considering.
- tabeth 8y agoWho does this stuff even benefit? The seemingly arbitrary lines drawn between marijuana, alcohol, tobacco and other "drugs" is so weird. So much moral righteousness.
- matt_wulfeck 8y agoWhy is it arbitrary? They are vastly different mind-altering affects and chemical addiction levels.
- tabeth 8y agoIf it's not arbitrary, what are the criteria for legality? If there are no set criteria (whether it's amount of deaths, addictiveness or otherwise) then isn't it arbitrary by definition? EDIT: Regarding my comment earlier about whether or not tobacco is worse than alcohol: Looks like tobacco is actually the #1 cause of death [1] [1] http://www.csdp.org/research/1238.pdf http://www.csdp.org/research/1238.pdf
- ebbv 8y agoThe tobacco companies have bought into the vaping industry, along with a lot of random other corporations and small businesses. But there's certainly NO reason to vape other than "monkey see, monkey do."
- kurthr 8y agoThe people selling it... (often illegally) to kids, who then have trouble getting a basic education and develop habits, which are long term destructive to their ability to operate within society.
- aje403 8y ago"Young hormonal teenagers seeking to rebel perform risky behavior with addictive substances" Maybe they should just sit in the chair and do what they're told instead
- rco8786 8y agoAssuming this is TIC?
- FrozenTuna 8y agoToo true. "ABC is a gateway drug/activity/event. It leads to XYZ, which is way worse!" Sure, so educate them on real consequences and safety and not the external imposed consequences. Also, don't lie about ABC since they'll assume you lied about XYZ as well. Seriously, who still doesn't see the same 5-10 year pattern at this point?
- aje403 8y agoPeople like to control others and everyone loves a sensationalist national epidemic for the headlines is what is at the heart of it. I like vaping though. Doesn't appear to do any lasting harm compared to everything else and smart kids will wise up and quit eventually.
- xena 8y agoNot everyone is gifted with long-term attention. Our society is helpfully breeding that quality out of us.
- nradov 8y agoA lot of those kids are probably self medicating with nicotine for stress / anxiety / ADHD. I've never been a user myself but it seems like for many people who get nervous and have trouble focusing, a little nicotine helps steady them out. Edit: To be clear, I'm not recommending that anyone, especially children, self medicate with psychoactive substances.
- swiley 8y ago(I'm a college student, not a highschool student) among my friends that smoked it wasn't self medication, it was an excuse to socialize. In some environments these can be hard to come by so smoking is an artificial one that lonely people sometimes pick up.
- bungie4 8y agoNicotine is a stimulant, not a depressant. Do you take Meth to 'even out'? Me, I just quit smoking entirely 3 years ago.
- lemonberry 8y agoThe biggest lie of cigarette smoking: that it relaxes you. When you're a nicotine addict and crave it you get anxious, nicotine fixes that.
- Jare 8y agoIn my experience, when I had regular or constant anxiety, the nicotine crave blended with it but smoking calmed both. It is very possible that a non-nicotine method of relaxation would have also worked on both, but those are rarer and/or less quick and convenient. That was one of the appeals of smoking.
- lemonberry 8y agoInteresting. I should have written that was my experience. Anxiety isn't something I typically experience unless I've drank too much coffee or, when I was a regular smoker, needed a cigarette. I take it you're a non-smoker now. I wonder how a vape would affect that.
- alecco 8y agoFor years it was obvious to me vaping was backed by an astroturfing campaign on Facebook/reddit/HN/etc. Same for many other things the online techie in crowd things they came up on their own. Let's fix this recurring problem.
- knieveltech 8y agoI've participated in many of the online groups you've mentioned. While there have certainly been communities pop up in the places you mention they are, by and large, populated with enthusiasts sharing details about their equipment and preferred vendors, and boutique manufacturers advertising their products. Obvious attempts to shill products manufactured by large corporate firms are roundly rejected by these communities. What evidence do you have to support claims of astroturfing?
- moate 8y ago...wut?
- portofcall 8y agoIf you’re right that might explain why this article was just flagged so much it went from near the top of the front page, to near the bottom of the second. Edit now the third page. 8 min later, 4th page.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- alecco 8y agoAnd we got downvoted to hell. Yeah, this was by "fans" alone.
- portofcall 8y agoCredit to the mods who brought it back to the front page though.
- julienmarie 8y agoSmoking per se has been a behaviour for thousands of years. As much as there will always be effects on health, vaping has been a god send for me. I have been smoking 1+ pack a day for nearly 20 years, until I switched to vaping 9 months ago. I feel incomparably better. My resting heart rate went down by 20%, I breathe better, am way less tired, and it doesn't stink . Plus, there is a geeky aspect with what we call RDAs ( rebuildable vapes ). Yes, we do not know the long terms effects, but the chances to be worse than cigarettes are close to 0. Also, this article is full of references to studies that have been flagged as partisan and not seriously conducted. Not smoking / vaping is better, but for an ex-smoker, this is a godsend.
- verylittlemeat 8y agoI always find it interesting to remember that smoking tobacco was unknown in Europe until the colonization of the Americas.
- mchannon 8y agoA generation ago these kids would've gotten busted for smoking old-fashioned cigarettes ("Smokin' in the boys room"). Two generations ago it was legal to buy (at some states at age 16) and legal to possess and use, except on school grounds. Three generations ago it was legal even in doctor's offices and hospitals. California and Massachusetts (and oddly enough, Mississippi) are stoking up a new hysteria with public health spending in an effort to keep people of all ages from switching from conventional cigarettes to e-cigs. I see six-figure earners on the sidewalks of San Francisco smoking old-fashioned cancer sticks and very few vaping. I wonder- did my tax dollars dissuade them from upgrading their habit? Second-hand smoke is substantially safer from vaping, but actual health of nonsmokers must not be these states' priorities. There are rumblings about regulating nicotine content in real cigarettes. If they were to regulate vape juices (like limit the worst precarcinogenic bases), I think that's a much better (and cheaper!) place to devote public resources.
- ams6110 8y agoOnly a generation ago smoking was still allowed at many high schools. It was at mine (1980s). There was a designated outdoor smoking area for the kids that smoked.
- danisth 8y agoMy high school had an on property smoking area until around 2003. The east coast of Canada can be pretty backwards I guess..
- pducks32 8y agoI wonder if they had one now, only for cigarettes, how many kids would do it and withstand the social humiliation that exists with teenagers around smoking cigarettes.
- rconti 8y agoYou must know that smoking rates have tanked all across California and particularly in urban areas. Maybe the advertising is meant to get ahead of the vaping 'problem', to get people to quit cold turkey rather than switching to vaping, or to prevent kids from vaping. The fact that you see a few people smoking cigarettes outside an office building doesn't mean both of these campaigns didn't work.
- Proven 8y agoHaha, more alarmist nonsense. It’s always something - the meddling into people’s lives never stops.
- ghostbrainalpha 8y agoReading these comments its obvious that Vaping is forcing us to confront an uncomfortable truth. Vaping might not be that much healthier for the consumer, but its widely popular because its so much nicer for the non smoker. How much of the campaign to stop smoking was out of concern for the health of future generations? And how much of it was out of the annoyance of second hand smoke? Even if Vaping proves to be equally dangerous to cigarette smoking, our desire to stop it just isn't in the same ballpark.
- Zak 8y agoI'm OK with that. I believe people have a fundamental right to make their own decisions about what to put in their bodies, but not to expose others to harmful or unpleasant substances. I'd like there to be more information on the health effects of vaping so that people can make better-informed decisions, but I doubt it would have a big impact. The health effects of smoking have been well-known for decades, but I think we didn't see significant declines until it became less socially acceptable.
- jogjayr 8y ago> How much of the campaign to stop smoking was out of concern for the health of future generations? And how much of it was out of the annoyance of second hand smoke? Aren't they often the same thing? You don't want your kids breathing other people's smoke at restaurants, parks, museums, and ballgames.
- ben509 8y agoWhy is it so important that our motivations be concern for future generations? We're people, too.
- wonderflpancake 8y agoSemi-related, maybe there are some nicotine experts here that can help me: I smoked ~4 years light/social post high school. Dipped Copenhagen Pouches for ~10 years. I've tried to quite with some success with the longest streak being 2 years. It is incredibly hard and all in the mind. I found ZYN pouches last year and they have replaced my needs. It "... is a tobacco leaf-free nicotine product. The nicotine salt used in ZYN is derived from tobacco leaves, but once the salt is extracted, no part of the leaf remains." The rest of it is says its food-grade. Obviously the best would be not to use anything. But would anyone happen to know if this is still leaving a lot of risk exposure? My thought is its probably about as safe as I'll ever find, and really just giving me the nicotine I've become used to without the bad stuff, as nicotine itself is not what causes problems. But if anyone has more informed opinions that would be helpful.
- xena 8y agoAsk your doctor, not us.
- surrogatekey 8y agoWell done you. In terms of recreational nicotine, Swedish snus has the most established, long term evidence base for very significantly reduced risks. It's reasonable to expect that a product like Zyn would fare even better than Swedish snus in long term studies because of the lack of tobacco specific nitrosamines. Although Zyn doesn't have a long term, formulation specific evidence base like Swedish snus, there is good evidence for its components. Pharmaceutical nicotine replacement therapy products like nicotine gum could be options too. Guessing you've already tried that though... but even the FDA now says NRT can be used indefinitely.
- bob1029 8y agoI think we have a bigger problem with stimulant abuse in general. The perception of caffeine and nicotine (and god forbid the various amphetamines) as "safe" is incredibly deceptive. I have seen the differences in myself in terms of productivity, sleep quality, etc. which cannot be fully-quantified on some medical study or quarterly performance reviews. We have an entire generation of young people entering the workforce who cannot go 30 minutes without taking a vape break outside. Sure, this doesn't directly impact the individual's health or immediate perceptions of work effort, but over time the impact is gradually discovered. The individual cannot sit still in a chair and focus on a complex/deep-dive topic long enough to reach an actionable conclusion. The other extreme is the individual is hyper-focused on one task (usually the amphetamine users) to the extent that they begin to ignore all sense of context and lose focus on the bigger picture. For most employment, this is usually not a concern, but for those who have to dive incredibly deep into complexity on a daily basis (engineers, programmers, architects, etc.), I feel it can be the difference between getting something done in 4 hours and getting it done in 4 weeks. This perception is also something incredibly hard to quantify, but I have witnessed several anecdotal examples (some in myself) which I am confident can be attributed to excessive use of stimulants.
- troncjb 8y ago> We have an entire generation of young people entering the workforce who cannot go 30 minutes without taking a vape break outside This is the most absurd hyperbole I've heard so far this week. Granted it's Monday so you had a lot working against you. An entire generation? Every thirty minutes?
- qwerty456127 8y agoSchools are for educating, not for prohibiting or judging. If you believe vaping is bad for kids or whoever - educate them about why do you think so and let them decide for themselves. When I was a schoolboy everybody believed kids that smoke don't grow as they get older, nobody wanted to become a gnome :-) If there is a real health threat we are to be able to explain it to the children, if there isn't - we probably should just let the do what they want.
- SnowingXIV 8y agoI'm pretty against the pro-vape movement because I believe there are plenty of kids now who now choose to vape who would have never smoked anything in the first place previously. It seems a lot easier to convince someone to vape because it appears safe and they already know all the risks of cigarettes which eliminated that of being a possibility (good!).
- 013a 8y agoOne problem I think the industry has right now is the "gas station disposable" ecigs, like Blu, Vuse, Juul pods, etc. These things have massive amounts of nicotine, sometimes as high as 30mg/ml which puts the hit right up there with cigarettes. Combine it with the fact that they taste like candy and can be vaped indoors with no ill effects, and its a recipe for addiction. More traditional e-juice can range in nic content from 0mg/ml to as high as 40-50mg/ml, but the most common variants you see are 3mg/ml and 6mg/ml. Relatively low compared to the gas station stuff. Its also worth saying that the two aren't directly comparable due to the action of vaporization. Gas station ecigs are pretty bad at generating vapor, which means you get less vapor on each inhale, which means less actual nicotine. Reusable, higher tier vapes that you use with usually lower nic juice produce significantly more vapor. So its hard to compare. Which comes down to the biggest problem in the world: regulation and standardization. Its a complete wild west. You have no idea what standards the e-juice manufacturers hold themselves to. The "brands" on many juices are hidden behind flashy flavor names like "Quadruple Laser Berry". There's an advertised nic content, but who knows if that's actually what's in there. Often you can purchase nic strengths that are absurd, like 40-60mg/ml, that would make any reasonable person instantly puke. Physical stores will often card, especially if you look young, but there are many online retailers where you can buy whatever you want with no verification. There are states where you can't legally buy this stuff online, but most online retailers don't care.
- mrob 8y agoSeeing as nicotine is a known risk, but the carrier fluids and flavorings are a mostly unknown risk, isn't higher nicotine concentration better? You can get the same dose with less exposure to the unknown risks.
- adrusi 8y agoIn any case, so little nicotine goes into the juice compared to the amount of solvent that increasing the nicotine concentration even to very high levels had a negligible impact on the amount of solvent. And manufacturers aren't going to put less flavoring in. I'm not sure of the chemistry in this specific case, but it sometimes happens that adding more solutes just causes a solution to get denser, so it doesn't decrease the mass of solvent per unit volume.
- TheBeardKing 8y ago>The 2017 Monitoring the Future survey on adolescent drug use found that 11 percent of 12th graders, 8.5 percent of 10th graders and 3.5 percent of 8th graders had vaped nicotine in the previous 30 days. Of those high school seniors, 24 percent reported vaping daily, which the study defined as vaping on 20 or more occasions in the previous 30 days I'm sorry, but is <10% of high schoolers an "explosion"? Obviously e-cigarettes are more appealing than tobacco products, but regular cigarette use was 15.8% in 2011 [1]. Marijuana use is at close to 6%, so not that big a gap from the apparent "explosion" of kids vaping. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/yout...
- extrememacaroni 8y agoExplosion refers to the increase rate in those percentages, not to the percentages themselves. Example: expecting in a relatively short amount of time, say, 0.1% and getting 4% qualifies as explosion to me.
- TheBeardKing 8y agoObviously the rate increased, it's a fairly new device. Nintendo Switch must've went nuclear. Pokemon Go caused utter annihiliation.
- frgtpsswrdlame 8y agoThe rate of tobacco consumption overall is what's important. So we would do a comparison like high school upperclassmen who smoke cigarettes in 2010 (or maybe even a bit earlier) to high school upperclassmen who smoke cigarettes and/or vape in 2018. The difference would tell us what we want to know.
- dajohnson89 8y agoswitch and Pokemon can't be smoked inside a school
- 8y ago
- billfruit 8y agoTo me, vaping appears to be a significantly less harmful to the body than smoking: vaping is just inhaling steam infused with nicotine where as in smoking the fumes of combustion are being inhaled. I also think with vaping there also no risk of passive smoking. I am in amazement of WHO and other health bodies dragging their feet in declaring vaping almost harmless compared to smoking.
- richsherwood 8y agoI’ve used the odd vape here and there to stop smoking and I 100% agree with you that it’s safer than cigarettes but it’s way to early to say that it’s wholly “safe”. The problem is that if you declare it safe then everyone and their dog will start vaping, (which then amplifies any outlier problems as there are more data sources. Aka teens). The unfortunate thing is we likely won’t see any declarations one way or another for a few years now. The only way to see the true costs associated with vaping is to let time take its course. 15 years from now we will have a better idea of what daily vaping does to the human body and how safe it really is.
- mrob 8y agoI'm not aware of any common vape that uses pure water as the carrier fluid. They typically use glycerol or propylene glycol, so it's not just "steam".
- foreigner 8y agoWhy not just set the minimum birthdate to buy nicotine products at 2000, so only 18 year olds can buy it this year, and future generations cannot? Seems like that would sidestep the whole "removing people's rights" argument and gradually just phase it out completely? Has any jurisdiction done that?
- Eric_WVGG 8y agoSure I mean a minimum age to buy cigarettes definitely kept teens off smoking for the past 50 years Sorry for the sarcasm, but, like, what?
- foreigner 8y agoI'm not suggesting a minimum age, I'm suggesting a minimum birthdate. So the minimum age will advance automatically - this year it will be 18, next year 19, etc... Put another way, people born on or before 2000 will continue to be able to buy nicotine, but people born after 2000 will never be able to buy it. Over time the percentage of the population which can buy nicotine will gradually dwindle to zero, and there will be no more excuses for stores to stock it. AFAIK that approach hasn't been tried anywhere. I think I heard a while back it was discussed in Russia but never actually happened? I don't see any good argument for not doing this.
- Eric_WVGG 8y agoThank you for the clarification. Amusing idea.
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- philip1209 8y ago> Schools Struggle with Vaping Explosion I find this title confusing - I thought it meant that vapes were physically exploding.
- corobo 8y agoYeah that is exactly why I clicked into the comments
- OnlyRepliesToBS 8y agoPaid bullshit campaigns.
- loeg 8y ago> In his four years at Cape Elizabeth, Mr. Carpenter says he can’t recall seeing a single student smoke a cigarette. Golden age syndrome. It happened, you just forget about the negative parts. Anecdote: when I was in highschool quite recently (2004-2008), many students were regular smokers or dippers (chew tobacco). At this point, the health effects of smoking (and to a lesser extent, chew tobacco) were obviously well understood. Nevertheless, students picked up smoking etc. Picking up vaping nicotine probably isn't great, but it beats cigarettes (and probably chew tobacco). The important thing to remember is that overall drug and alcohol use among American teens is down, and trending down. "According to a major longitudinal study of teenagers called Monitoring the Future, high schoolers’ use of alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs (other than marijuana and vaping) have dropped to the lowest levels since the survey began in 1976."[0] Notably, from the above December 2016 article: > E-Cigarettes (Vaporizers): The rate for e-cigarettes among high school seniors dropped to 12.4 percent from last year’s 16.2 percent. Of note: only 24.9 percent of 12th graders report that their e-cigarettes contained nicotine (the addictive ingredient in tobacco) the last time they used, with 62.8 percent claiming they contain "just flavoring." (emphasis added) > Attitudes and Availability: This year, more 10th graders disapprove of regular use of e-cigarettes than last year. For example, 65 percent of 10th graders say they disapprove, up from last year’s 59.9 percent. In addition, more 10th graders think it is harder to get regular cigarettes than last year; 62.9 percent said they are easy to get, compared to 66.6 percent last year. This represents a dramatic shift from survey findings two decades ago, when 91.3 percent of 10th graders thought it was easy to get cigarettes. [0]: https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2016/12/teen-substance-use-shows-promising-decline https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2016/12/...
- thedirt0115 8y agoI wonder how accurate these surveys are. In high school, kids I knew who actually did drugs wouldn't admit to it (even on an anonymous survey), and some other kids would answer that they do meth every day because it sounded funny to write that.
- Rapzid 8y agoLooking past the safety concerns, I personally have zero interest in vaping nicotine as an ex smoker. A lot who have smoked and quit probably understand the pschological aspect; the constant need, the schedule, the loss of enjoyment from taking a deep breath of fresh air.. I don't want to be addicted to inhaling nicotine in any form.
- kevindong 8y agoI never understood why anyone young would start smoking. Throughout my K-12 education, I was told every single year that smoking is bad and all that jazz (i.e. shown pictures of what a smoker's lungs look like, shown documentaries on the negative effects, etc.). It definitely isn't for lack of trying of my school district's part, and yet high single digit percentages of my peers in high school were using some form of tobacco/nicotine when I graduated in 2015. It's well settled science that using these types of products cannot possibly be good for you. It baffles me why anyone would intentionally create an addiction/habit that, at absolute best, is neutral for your health.
- am_i_legal 8y agonot a smoker, but asked a lot of smokers on why they smoke. reasons: 1). exclusive social 'networks' - see smokers gathered during 'smoking breaks' 2). looks cool seriously, someone should make a e-cigarette that looks exactly like a cigar... ps: as for all those non-smokers, pretend to cough when someone is smoking on public space. tell them it looks shit when someone smokes.
- duxup 8y agoWhile I don't doubt that social aspects play a part. I wonder how much of it is some sort of self medicating with the nicotine.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago"I never understood why anyone young would start smoking" To look cool. No, seriously, that's one of the main reasons. To look cool in front of one's peers. You might not have cared about such things, or feel pressure to engage in them. If so, I'm happy for you. But that doesn't mean others don't.
- bonesss 8y agoSuperficial habits are also an easy substitute for personality, something teens are eagerly trying to develop. Everything from hair dying to wearing bow ties are 'normal', vices carry all kinds of extra social signaling.