Thank you for checking out our special section on underage vaping.
The idea originally came up in December, 2018, just before the holidays. We noticed that despite a downward trend of cigarette use, underage vaping was being referred to as a crisis and an epidemic, so we decided to see what the facts were behind such bold claims.
Over the last four months, we have talked to various groups of educators, officials, scientists and users to get the facts, figures and perspectives. What we found in the numbers was both fascinating and sad, as vape use has been shown to be on a dramatic rise.
Yet finding someone underage who vapes is no easy task. Teens tend to have strategies for getting away with things, and unlike educators, we do not interact with them on a regular basis. Nor were we trying to catch them, but rather, learn about why they start and why they continue. We hope our interview sheds light on a teen’s perspective, without which we think shared preventative ideas are invalid.
What surprised us as we compared our interview with a vaper to our interviews with those combatting use was how similar the viewpoints were. It seems like we know the reasons teens begin vaping, but we have a hard time communicating why they shouldn’t start.
The best approach to prevention seems to be fair education. That is, education on vaping that isn’t judgmental, that doesn’t gloss over the allure and doesn’t simply tell young people they are wrong. It seems like we are moving away from the “Just Say No” message that failed our society with other substance abuse.
We discovered all this and more and combined it here. Information is changing quickly and the problem isn’t going away on April 25, the day we publish this piece. Our coverage of this problem isn’t going away either and we hope you will continue to read along with us and join the conversation in the months and years to come.
