The civilian anti-drug group MATForce hosted a lecture on the dangers of youth vaping at Mingus Union High School on Saturday, Jan. 14.
The talk was presented by Cottonwood Police Department school resource officer Brandon Iurato, who said he would attempt to shed light on misinformation on vaping for the benefit of youth.
Iurato claimed that the current usage of e-cigarettes and vapes is an epidemic in the local community. He stated that nicotine is a gateway drug to marijuana, which in turn is a gateway drug to many other harmful drugs.
Although the gateway drug hypothesis has been used as an argument against nonlethal drug use for decades, an extensive literature review by the National Institute of Justice in 2018 demonstrated that no causal link existed between cannabis use and later use of other drugs.
Originally designed to help people quit smoking cigarettes, nicotine and non-nicotine vapes are now a trendy product, especially among teenagers and young adults.
The first e-cigarettes were produced in 2003, and in 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began requiring vape manufacturers to label their products with warnings that nicotine is an addictive chemical. In 2019, the legal age to purchase any nicotine product was raised from 18 to 21 years of age in the U.S.
Iurato argued that vape packaging, flavors and advertisements are tailored to appeal to young people who are not even old enough to legally purchase a vape, offering a range of colors and a variety of flavors. The FDA banned fruit-flavored vaping products in early 2020.
Iurato also pointed out that the non-psychotropic chemicals in a vape are unregulated, such as formaldehyde, which is a carcinogen, and toxic metals including cadmium and lead. Conflicting medical studies leave the issue of how harmful these chemicals are up for debate, with a major 2017 study determining formaldehyde and toxic metals are only released at high temperatures that “were caused by unrealistic use conditions that create the unpleasant taste of dry puffs to e-cigarette users and are thus avoided.”
According to Iurato, many teenagers vape because their friends are doing it and because they like the taste. Only a few young people vape to help them quit smoking cigarettes. Some claim vaping helps their anxiety, as do adults who smoke cigarettes, although nicotine stimulates the central nervous system, raising blood pressure, heart rate and respiration.
According to the American Lung Association, there was an 1,800% increase of vape use among teenagers from 2011 to 2019.
Vapes can also contain THC. Iurato claimed to have seen five THC overdoses during his time at Mingus Union High. As with alcohol use, THC overdose symptoms can include nausea, dizziness, anxiety and paranoia. Unlike with alcohol use, the National Institute on Drug Abuse states that there is no known case of a death from overdosing on marijuana.
According to the FDA’s 2022 National Youth E-Cigarette Survey, over 2.5 million middle and high school students currently use vapes, with 1 in 4 using them daily. The most common type of e-cigarettes used are disposable vapes and 85% of teens’ vapes are flavored. Social media plays a large role in spreading vape culture. A popular form of content among vapers are cloud contests, in which they compete to see who can exhale the biggest cloud of vapor.
Iurato argued that the best way for parents to prevent their children from vaping is for them to pay attention to their children and have uncomfortable conversations with them to dissuade them.
The MATForce lecture was part of an ongoing monthly series called Trauma Lens Care. The next installment will take place on Saturday, Feb. 11, at MUHS, and will focus on challenging behaviors in children and teenagers.
