The Teenage Vaping Epidemic

Each generation of teenagers has a way to rebel.  For many of the earlier generations, it was smoking cigarettes. In today’s generation, smoking has taken on the new form of e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes and vaping has taken the teens of today by storm. Why do so many teens want to do this harmful activity, and how did they begin? For many, it was just a small thing. They would only vape at parties, or just in social areas. However, most of these cases have begun to turn into a nasty addiction.

Many of these students have an array of devices, from flash drive size Juuls to big clunky mods. Many teens start vaping at an early age, and are not aware of the addictive side effect of nicotine. One teen, who wished to stay anonymous, said, “It started off as nothing I remember – I was so against ever doing it. I first did it at my friends house; they kept saying its not that bad there’s barely any nicotine in it. Then I would only do it occasionally – basically whenever I was offered. That all changed when I bought one for my own, and now I do it everyday multiple times a day.” Many of these avid vapers started off against  the idea of vaping.

Another student had a different story when it came to their relationship with vaping. They stated, “I started vaping because I believe it helps with my stress, I used to never hit anything stronger than 24 grams of nicotine. This summer, a lot of stressful things happened, I would constantly use the juices with the most nicotine available. I bought multiple devices. Now I’m trying to slow down – I sold everything besides one.”  This stress relieving aspect is a main reason for why people start smoking vapes and cigarettes. Many teens feel as if they’re under enormous amounts of pressure, and everyone has an outlet that they use to try to reduce their stress. Many students said that is why they got into vaping.

These students do not know the dangers that come along with this activity. Many of them believe that since it is not “smoke” it is not bad for you. Some even mix cigarettes and vaping together. As one student said, “if I’m feeling really desperate for nicotine I’ll smoke a cigarette, I know they are bad for you but doing it only every once in a while should be fine.” A study from the University of California San Francisco says that combing cigarettes and vaping double the risk of heart attacks. Many teens and adults alike switch between cigarettes and vaping or even combine them both. This detrimental behavior can lead to many health problems such as stroke, heart attack, lung cancer, and much more.

Based off the teens that had been interviewed, there are many different opinions on vaping. One of the most troubling commonalities is that people don’t see anything wrong with vaping and believe they can quit whenever. A student stated, “I started vaping because I just wanted to do all the cool tricks that I always see videos of online. So I bought a device and began vaping with a little nicotine. Now I mix the highest nicotine juices together to get more nicotine than I can buy. But this isn’t a big deal I can quit whenever I want.” Not only does it cost a  large amount money to vape, many people  said they can quit whenever they want, but  don’t plan on quitting anytime soon. Even a student said they had “no idea why they needed nicotine so bad they just needed it.”

Vaping is something that can stay with students for the rest of their lives, but it doesn’t have to. It might be hard, but anyone can quit now and save themselves from a painful addiction later on. As many people may know, vaping devices were created to help adults quit smoking cigarettes, and if vaping can help people stop smoking cigarettes, then people can slowly stop vaping as well.  Try to lower the amount of nicotine, get rid of the device, and remove eliminate situations where people might feel pressured to vape.