Around eight million people a year die of nicotine use. Yet despite this, many people in the Highlands still vape. That was already known, but why?
Vaping is terrible for your health. Yet despite this, some students inside Highlands still do it. While in the past six years, drug use has gone down, it is still a huge problem for a good amount of teenagers. Worse, some students do it inside the school, making it difficult for everyone inside the classroom to function normally.
Officer Rohlfer, the HHS school resource officer, said: “… vaping THC has that additional fact of stunting brain growth. If I cut my skin right now, it’s gonna heal back. But your brain doesn’t do that. If you mess with your brain because you’re out doing THC every day, well, that’s why you have people who are stoners. You ruined your brain, you’re not getting that back.”
As seen above, vaping has extreme health disadvantages. In fact, according to Rohlfer, a certain type of vape known as the THC vape holds marijuana, something that can permanently stunt your brain growth. Still, THC isn’t the only type of vape that affects your health.
In addition to this, according to the American Heart Association: “Vaping has been associated with an increased risk for respiratory diseases and a condition specifically related to e-cigarette use, called EVALI – short for e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized EVALI as a condition in August 2019. By mid-February 2020, roughly 2,800 e-cigarette users had been hospitalized and 68 people had died.”
This gets us into why people would do this in the first place, what with how deadly vaping can be. Other than the more personal reasons of stress release, mental illness, peer pressure, and curiosity, there is actually a reason why teenagers find vaping to be so alluring, and Officer Rohlfer, has the answer.
Rohlfer said: “Truthfully, I think people vape in the first place because tobacco companies did a phenomenal job in the 70s, 100% advertising to children, making vaping look cool. They went after social media influencers and gave away their stuff for free, just like a drug dealer. They made sure the influencers were using online and posting about it, making it look cool. Then Juul- well, all vapes but specifically Juul vapes did the same thing.”
Not only did Juul copy the advertising used by the cigarette companies, but they also lied about their product, thus attracting even more teenagers.
“Juul made vaping look cool, it’s addictive, but they claimed it was healthy. Well we now know it’s not true. Juul said vaping was a better alternative to cigarettes, claiming that it didn’t have the same health effects. And that is technically true, the health effects are just as bad, but they are different health effects,” said Rohlfer.
So according to Rohlfer, Juul has been shaming teenagers into trying their product for years. Still, there are upsides. With this new information coming out, people have stopped using Juul products. There are still a lot of people vaping but, according to Rohlfer, the amount has lessened.
“I’d say there is a slight dip [in nicotine use] now. it’s going in the right direction. I started as an SRO 6 years ago, and I think it was at its worst the first 3 or 4 years I was working here,” said Rohlfer.
While this is good news, there are still people, especially teenagers, who have still fallen into the addictive cycle that vaping is. While some decide that trying it once “can’t hurt” they soon find that even one vape can be enough to cause serious addiction. Those wishing to release anxiety soon find that vaping is worse for their mental health, not better.
Rohlfer said: “Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances, like heroin and possibly cocaine are above it, but that’s it. Juul makes it look cool, kids try it a few times, and then they get addicted.”
Officer Rohlfer’s information was backed by CNN.
According to CNN, nicotine is one of the third most addictive substances in the world. It was estimated that “tobacco and nicotine use will kill more than 8 million people annually, by 2030.” That’s around fifty million people.
When asked what Rohlfer/code would say to any kid considering or currently using nicotine, Rohlfer/Code said: “I guess I’d say to anyone reading this article, you’re getting addicted to a substance that’s clearly bad for you.”