“What is that smell?” As students walk into the bathroom the smell of citrus fruits and marijuana fills their nostrils. What is the actual amount of students that take part in E-Cigarettes? Teen vaping continues to be a major growing problem.
Research noted, roughly 14% of high school students currently use E-cigarettes. Students use both nicotine and marijuana devices in bathrooms, parking lots, and even inside of the classrooms. 31% of students that vape said that family members got them into vaping, another 31% say the reason they vape is because of the flavors that target high school students, finally 17% believe that E-cigarettes are healthier than alternative products.
Addiction has been growing through students with 18% of teens in middle and high school admit to vaping. Among these, 46% say they do it on a daily basis. 42.3% say that they vape roughly 20 of every 30 days.
Addiction to nicotine is rising very quickly where students 14-18-years-old are vaping and don’t understand the risk and dangers they are taking when they consume nicotine products. This causes the growing problems of lung and brain cancer. The most deadly consequence of vaping is popcorn lungs. E-cigarettes and vaping cause scarring in the lungs which ultimately blocks the airways and prevents breathing in those who vape. In 2022 alone, were almost 2,100 people hospitalized due to vape injuries not including “popcorn lungs.”
Opponents of making vaping illegal say it helps cigarette addicts quit and it is safer. Yet, according to the Surgeon General, there is no evidence that vaping helps smokers quit and it is not safer than cigarettes. They simply trade one problem, cancer causing agents, for another problem, scar tissue in the lungs. One problem over another isn’t a “better” option. It is not safer than cigarettes. The real solution is to make both illegal.
Misinformation, especially among teens, is damaging their health. They pick up the vaping habit with the sweet smelling flavors, but they don’t realize that they’ve been duped into thinking vaping is safe. The current law on vaping is consumers need to be 21 to buy a vape but there are still millions of teens who are able to get their hands on them. There are many stores and websites that let under age kids buy vapes with no proof of age. The age required to buy a vape was 18 just a few years ago but it had little, if any impact on sales, and there are still so many youth vaping.
The company Altria owns Juul and is one of the biggest players when it comes to getting teens hooked on vapes. The company claims that their product is used to get cigarette smokers off cigarettes.
Juul used to make all sorts of flavors like mango and other fruity flavors so when the youth tried it they got hooked. The company tried owning up to their mistake by getting rid of the fruity flavors but by that time it was too late and hundreds of thousands of teens were already addicted. Juul and others realized that fruity vapes created a big market of teens and flooded the market.
Teen vaping is growing in numbers every year and continues to get worse, companies that sell flavored vapes should continue to be banned and vapes need to be harder to access for teens.
Blue Valley is part of a lawsuit against the makers of Juul because of the negative impact vaping has had on learning.

Contributions to this story came from 21C Journalism students G. Coultis, E. Hammel, and C. Thomas.