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“Vape Companies Count on the Cool Factor to Get Us Kids Addicted”

A Conversation with 5 Teenage Students

The vaping conversation with the two teens I parent was so illuminating that I held a similar discussion with a group of teens I teach and who serve on our school’s student council. Three themes emerged that are helpful to parents and other caring adults:

  • Confusion about vaping
  • The specter of addiction
  • The cool factor
teens vaping on social media

Disclosure: This post is in partnership with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Opinions are mine.

Confusion About Vaping

As an adult who is wholly disinterested in vaping myself, I am out-of-tune and thus, confused. And in talking with my students, I hear them saying that teens are also confused — especially the ones who vape.

Is vaping harmful or not? Is vaping addictive or not? Is vaping your choice or not? Here are the facts, according to
TobaccoFreeCO.org/know-the-facts.

Vaping can be harmful. It’s not just water vapor. “Vape e-juice may contain nicotine, chemicals that cause cancer, and can lead to health problems including wheezing, coughing, sinus infections, nosebleeds, shortness of breath and asthma.1

Also: “It’s not just water vapor. It may contain toxins, potentially cancerous agents and dangerous chemicals like diacetyl, which is known to cause a potentially fatal lung disease called popcorn lung. It most often contains a combination of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavorings and nicotine.”3 4

And finally, “100 percent of JUULs – teens’ top choice for vaping devices – contain nicotine. And each JUUL pod contains the same amount of nicotine as a whole pack of cigarettes.”

Vaping can be highly addictive. “Young people who took up vaping were more than four times more likely to smoke traditional cigarettes a year later, according to one study.2 And we know that smoking is both harmful and addictive.

Vaping can take away a teenager’s choice. It’s the nature of addiction that once a person is addicted, their choice in consumption is greatly reduced. Let Justin, Lucas, Josh, Penelope, and Ashlynn tell you about it.

The Specter of Addiction

People who get addicted to nicotine are just like “yeah I need to do this to get through the day.”

Justin

I know for a lot of people, life long addiction can start when you are in middle school.

Lucas


The longer you are doing something related to nicotine, the harder it’s going to be to break away from it.

Josh

I fear there are a lot of people who try vaping and get addicted to it and other substances, and that it is so sad because I’ve seen them become a shell of the human they used to be.

Penelope

Vaping is not as known as bad because at public places where it says no smoking zone, they don’t really pay attention to vaping. People who vape don’t consider it smoking, and they don’t consider it unhealthy or addictive. My family was at a hotel pool and there were these guys vaping, and vaping still has a certain smell because nicotine still has a certain smell. But they didn’t think it was bad because they weren’t smoking and the hotel didn’t do anything about it because they weren’t smoking.

Ashlynn

The Cool Factor

My students, some who had tried vaping and some who have decided not to, told me that a desire to stay in control of their lives and the risk of becoming addicted were reasons enough to keep them from using e-cigarettes. They also explained why some teens will try vaping in spite of the risk of addiction.

The payoff? Being cool. The consensus among my students is the title of this post: vape companies count on the cool factor to get kids addicted.

In other words, vaping companies count on social media to make teens complicit in their own addiction.

I could open Snapchat right now and see 50 stories of people doing vape tricks. That’s the marketability of it. It is a cool fun game to some people.

Penelope

Some kids aren’t mentally mature enough to make decisions for themselves at this age. They are going to see other people doing it and they are going to go “oh, you got to be cool,” or “I’m gonna be cool if I do that.”

Justin

I showed my students an image Cristy sent me after reading my previous post on vaping. It’s a sign on the door to a convenience store.

Warning: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Your experience. Your choice. Juul.

I asked my students: does this sign discourage e-cigarette use? They agreed that such a message may deter some teens, but it also may encourage edginess for those susceptible to needing to feel and look cool.

What Message Deters You from Vaping?

I asked this question of students at my school. Overwhelmingly, they cited maintaining control of their minds and bodies as their reason for making a conscious decision not to vape.


Being addicted to something! Not having control over myself.

Penelope

I don’t really want to be near it because of what it has done to people who are close to me.

Justin

I would never do vaping if there was even just the slightest risk of addiction. I just wouldn’t because I like to have more self control. I don’t want to risk losing that I guess.

Lucas

For me, it is also that addiction changes your personality. You will be doing something with friends and then something is telling you that you need to go take a vape, a JUUL. I don’t want to lose myself.

Josh

Addiction is a big part but also it’s the harm vaping can cause to your body. It could be worse than cigarettes because cigarettes ruin your lungs and can give you the chance of lung cancer, but also can vaping because that stuff is not meant to go in your body.

Ashlynn

Lucas had some final advice for parents: start talking with your kids early, like before or during the middle school years.

“I would really put a lot of effort into talking with younger people because I know from people in my life that lifelong addiction can start when you are in middle school.”

Resources for Parents Dealing with Teens Vaping

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has created a suite of materials to help parents and other caring adults understand the risks of vaping, and prepare them to have conversations with their teens about it. Visit TobaccoFreeCO.org/know-the-facts for these resources and more.

See also:

Lori Holden's book cover

Lori Holden, mom of a young adult daughter and a young adult son, writes from Denver. She was honored as an Angel in Adoption® by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

Her first book, The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole, makes a thoughtful anytime gift for the adoptive families in your life. Her second book, Standing Room Only: How to Be THAT Yoga Teacher is now available in paperback, and her third book, Adoption Unfiltered, is now available through your favorite bookseller!

Find Lori’s books on her Amazon Author page and catch episodes of Adoption: The Long View wherever you get your podcasts.

6 Responses

  1. Ack, vaping. We see this, unfortunately, a lot in my middle school. And that JUUL thing is the devil — it looks just like a USB. Which actually, with the Google drive, should make it more suspicious, I guess. It’s so distressing because so many kids truly don’t see it as smoking or something unhealthy, and it clearly is, and is marketed to young people. Grrr. It’s great that you have teens talking to teens, and encourage parents to talk early to kids about this threat to their health.

  2. I thought I had commented on your previous post about vaping but I guess not. We recently found out our older nephew (30) has been vaping. He wouldn’t dream of touching a cigarette (especially with dh’s family’s history of cancer, including lung cancer), but for some reason he thinks this is OK. We all tried to tell him otherwise. I’m hoping it’s sunk in. It’s still chemicals going into your lungs (and I didn’t realize they contain nicotine too!), it’s expensive, and yes, I think it looks dumb. You would think we’d have learned from smoking…! — I guess the tobacco companies are getting desperate…! Thank you for this!

  3. I can’t tell you how awesome it is that this photo I sent you is being used to explore vaping with your students. The sign bothered me when I saw it, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. Your students did and explained why nicely, which is something I wish the executives at JUUL could hear first hand. On an aside, JUUL is hiring like crazy, meaning they are either covering their tracks or something else is up, but I wonder what your students would think about hearing Silicon Valley executives were profiting off getting them addicted to their product.

    Anyway, thank you for this post. I sincerely hope that word starts circulating that the only people who benefit from vaping in the long-term are those selling the product, and that it’s at the expense of their customers.

    1. The fact that they are hiring like crazy to help people poison themselves is horrifying.

      Thanks so much for sending that pic to me! It was an integral part of our conversation.

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