It’s no longer “smoking in the boys room” at school that causes the biggest concern for school and health officials. It’s vaping – the inhalation of liquidized nicotine and other substances – whether in the school bathroom, the hallway, or even the classroom.
“Use has skyrocketed,” said Clint Sperber, administrator for the St. Lucie County Health Department. Sperber and three others held a discussion panel in the St. Lucie County Commission Chambers late last week to raise awareness of the growing trend’s dangers.
More than 25 percent of youths ages 11 to 17 in St. Lucie County have said they have tried e-cigarettes or other similar products. One in 13 middle school students and 1 in 4 high schoolers have reported trying the products.
And the product is easy to conceal in plain sight, unless adults know what to look for. Some devices look like USB jump drives. Others look like fat pens. Taking a hit on a device produces a cloud of vapor – hence the term “vaping” – that often smells like its flavor. And, very quickly, the cloud and smell dissipate.
Sperber said use of e-cigarettes, such as Juul and Blu, carry four major risks, not the least of which is the potential for injury or death. The liquid capsules contain a concentrated amount of nicotine that could kill as many as four toddlers if they were exposed.
Similar devices have been known to explode, causing injuries to the user.
And, despite claims that e-cigarette users can use the devices to wean themselves off nicotine, Sperber said that the use of e-cigarettes by youths makes them four times more likely to use cigarettes later in life.
The last risk is that nicotine – as the public has been made aware – is “highly addictive,” Sperber said, as much so as heroin and cocaine. A single Juul pod carries the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes.
The challenge with vaping devices, according to Sperber and others on the panel, is that the liquid cartridges that fuel the devices are offered in a wide assortment of flavors most youths would enjoy. Such flavors include various fruits, bubble gum and even popular sodas.
There are 450 products on the market with flavors to mask the “harsh taste” of the liquid, Martin County Schools Superintendent Laurie Gaylord shared during the panel.
“It’s not just an issue here,” Gaylord said of the Treasure Coast. It’s a national crisis. “They don’t understand the dangers.”
E-cigarettes have been marketed as a safer alternative from cigarettes, which contain a long list of carcinogenic chemicals and other ingredients. However, Port St. Lucie Police Chief John Bolduc counters that it’s a mere matter of time before the full extent of e-cigarette ingredients is known and understood. He noted that the industry remains unregulated.
To make matters worse, in Bolduc’s opinion, e-cigarette devices can be used for more than just nicotine products.
If it can be liquefied, it can be vaporized, Gaylord said – including THC, the chemical in marijuana that produces the high. THC can be extracted from cannabis oil, resulting in a “gooey, oily mess,” Chief Bolduc said. That goo is then thinned so it can be vaped. “It’s a soup of chemicals,” he said.
And it’s not the THC of yesteryear, when teens were toking behind the school.
“It’s a different world out there,” said Dr. Kenneth Palestrant, director of the HANDs Clinic. Back then, THC levels were 2 percent to 3 percent. Current street marijuana – in leaf form – has a 15 percent THC concentration. Vaping marijuana – known as “dabbing” – has a THC concentration between 60 percent and 90 percent.
There have been reported incidents at Martin County schools where students have dabbed for their first time and passed out due to the high level of THC.
It’s called a “green out,” Gaylord said, and Martin County schools have logged nearly 300 incidents of vaping.
“We have no idea what the long-term effects are,” Chief Bolduc said of vaping’s effect on the body.
Dr. Palestrant agreed, but also noted that dabbing is leading to “cannabis use disorder,” which is showing a reduction in IQ by about 8 points.
“Unfortunately, it’s not reversible,” he said. The IQ drop in youths is long-term and affects their ability to learn at school, acquire life skills and hold a job.
