As local and federal legislators contemplate cracking down on e-cigarette flavors, a new study confirms what many have already observed: Teens are vaping at alarming rates.
The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who led the 2018 Monitoring the Future survey, announced Monday that nicotine-vaping rates have nearly doubled among high school seniors, with 20.9 percent of seniors saying they’ve vaped nicotine during the past 30 days — up from 11 percent in 2017. The MTF survey has been tracking substance use among teenagers since 1975. This year, they polled 44,482 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders from 392 public and private schools.
The trend has trickled down to middle schoolers, with 10.9 percent of eighth-graders saying they’ve also used e-cigarettes in the past year. Vaporizer use of any substance, including cannabis and things such as vitamins, has increased among all teenagers.
Some argue that e-cigs are a gateway to tobacco products.
“Research tells us that teens who vape may be at risk for transitioning to regular cigarettes,” says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of NIDA, in a statement. “While we have celebrated our success in lowering their rates of tobacco use in recent years, we must continue aggressive educational efforts on all products containing nicotine.”
Teens also report vaping products are getting easier to come by. Perceived prevalence of vaping devices and liquids increased from 45.7 percent to 66.6 percent among teenagers since last year.
“Teens are clearly attracted to the marketable technology and flavorings seen in vaping devices,” says Volkow. “However, it is urgent that teens understand the possible effects of vaping on overall health and on the development of the teen brain, and the potential for addiction.”
It seems e-cigs may have distracted teens from tobacco products, at least for now, with just 3.6 percent of high school seniors smoking every day, down from 22.4 percent two decades ago. Rates of opioid, cocaine and other illicit drug use have also decreased significantly. Marijuana has held steady overall over the past 20 years, although rates among the lowest age groups seem to have waned since 2013.
While binge drinking among seniors has seen a major fall — from 31.5 percent in 1998 to 13.8 percent — it remains a primary concern.
“We are encouraged to see continued declines in a variety of measures of underage alcohol use,” says George F. Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. “However . . . far too many young people continue to drink at a time in their lives when their brains and bodies are quite vulnerable to alcohol-related harms.”