Are kids vaping now instead of smoking?

[Rossum]

I didn't have a problem with the teen thing until the past year when they went from being older teens having fun mostly blowing clouds to now when it's middle schoolers getting stoned off of 50mg/ml juuls.

Meh. Still better for 'em to get a nic buzz from a juul than from a pack of Cowboy Killers™.

 

[CMD-Ky]

You are in the minority, I am sorry to say.

Unless their parent is like me. I use my phone so much, I only have to recharge it every Friday night and I made it my business to know what my kid was up to as much as humanly possible.

I do agree most parents these days are too wrapped up in their own "stuff" to pay much attention to what their kids are doing, and then blame the schools and government when their kid gets in trouble.

 

[j3000]

Okay here is my 2 cents, a few years ago I posted that I was going to let my 17yo daughter vape, no nic e-juice and I got my my post torn apart here on the boards, that's one of the reasons I left for awhile.

Anyway she used it,as a snack substitute, she lost 30 pounds and her energy level went threw the roof on her 18th birthday I threw her a vape party at a vape shop in Cadillac Michigan.

We jump ahead 2 years she still vape no nic- juice and she still use it as a snack alternative. I think it was the best thing I ever did for her..

 

[CMD-Ky]

More proof that one size does not fit all. Thinking for your self, refusing to follow the crowd - all too rare. The wisdom of the mob is often wrong.

Okay here is my 2 cents, a few years ago I posted that I was going to let my 17yo daughter vape, no nic e-juice and I got my my post torn apart here on the boards, that's one of the reasons I left for awhile.

Anyway she used it,as a snack substitute, she lost 30 pounds and her energy level went threw the roof on her 18th birthday I threw her a vape party at a vape shop in Cadillac Michigan.

We jump ahead 2 years she still vape no nic- juice and she still use it as a snack alternative. I think it was the best thing I ever did for her..

 

[crayfishx]

Teenagers trying vaping to do cool tricks or try flavours..etc isn't something that generally worries me - I have a teenager and I would be a little concerned if he was vaping regularly but I would be more worried if he was taking nicotine. I don't agree vaping is a gateway to smoking if you rule out the nicotine aspect - one is fruity and delicious and the other (to a first timer) is a disgusting mouthful of combustion product.

Teenagers experiment with all sorts of crazy stuff, vaping some PG/VG with flavourings would more than likely just be one of a million passing phases.... the trick is to keep them off the nicotine, if there is no chemical addiction, they'll just move on to the next thing when the novelty wears off or there is a new fad in town.

 

[Canadian_Vaper]

Yes, well instead of experimenting with smoking instead they are experimenting with vaping, I remember reading that one is two people that even try a tobacco cigarette are likely to become a long term smoker, with vaping if they try a nic free vape they can experiment with it without worrying about addiction.

I believe it was 2016 for this data, only 0.7% of non smokers who tried vaping ended up becoming daily vapers, that's a whole lot better than 50%, although stats have probably changed since then thanks to Juul's...

 

[Vaperer]

At 16 they should be experimenting working. At 18th the Military. Pretty hard to tell a marine he can't Vape. Pretty hard for me to tell my son anything now, he's the leader I follow him he's the Marine. He's my youngest son.

 

[j3000]

All in know was that I drank more before I was 21 then I did after I turned 21, I started smoking when I was 14 and quite when I was 40, and I went into rehab/jail when I was 19 till I was 21, so if a bunch of teens want to vape whoo cares..

 

[Canadian_Vaper]

All in know was that I drank more before I was 21 then I did after I turned 21, I started smoking when I was 14 and quite when I was 40, and I went into rehab/jail when I was 19 till I was 21, so if a bunch of teens want to vape whoo cares..

I honestly only care until regulations are put in place, I just don't want to have a bunch of overbearing, unfair regulations because little jimmy wants to get his lungs wet..

 

[stols001]

I wasn't around then but I'd imagine it might have had something to do with mentioning an illegal act (which technically it is). My son was of age when he started vaping, just poor, and I was happy to help him switch from cigarettes.

Personally, I don't find issue with what private parents do in their own home, including "illegal acts" that aren't actually so terrible. I once read a study that stated most Americans commit a felony a day. Given that here, going over 20 miles over the speed limit is a "felony" well I imagine they aren't all egregious felonies, like child abuse and whatnot.

But, felonious behavior seems to be a fact, for many people. It's different than posting about it on an online forum, however.

I kind of like to imagine, when I'm having a bad day, that there is some nice, wonderful church group around who is... "Saving all their felonies up... for me to use."

I'm kidding, mostly. I might well have got my kid vaping were he 17, rather than 18, but fortunately I didn't have to make that choice.

My personal theory is, whether it's allowing a kid to try their first glass of wine (something so totally normal in Europe) at whatever age, that kind of stuff, is ultimately LESS damaging to children than pretending everything is "fine" as the kid skulks off and does illegal stuff with their friends because it is "exciting" and "whatever" it is.

So, glorifying vaping AND trying to enforce children away from tobacco products or vaping products does little good, in my eyes.

With that said, as vapers, we should comply, generally, with the laws as they stand, even if we disagree with them and etc., but it's hard at times.

I still care a lot less about who is "juuling" vs. who is "going to school with a gun packed and loaded for destruction."

And no, I don't think vape bans OR gun bans will solve the issue, either.

Anna

 

[AngeNZ]

So, glorifying vaping AND trying to enforce children away from tobacco products or vaping products does little good, in my eyes.

Yep! Its like the old 'if you can't have it, you want it' mentality. Plus kids are always curious and want to do what you do.

Case in point - I cant get my nephew off my crutches, he spends more time hooning around on my knee scooter than I do - and whenever my moon boot is off my foot, its on his and he's stomping around pretending he's got a broken leg!

So it makes sense they are curious too about vaping.

 

[Baditude]

Remember those fake cigarettes made from bubble gum that came in a cigarette-looking box specifically aimed for kids? (I'm showing my age here.) I believe it was the FDA that stopped the company from making them because it felt the candy cigarettes promoted smoking for kids. A lot of good that move made.

 

[j3000]

Those candy cigarettes you can still buy on Amazon,. I have a cigarette machine from the 70's that despense them. I keep it in my craft room aka my man cave.

 

[HauntedMyst]

Are kids vaping now instead of smoking?

It depends on how soon I can get to them. I have an unofficial afterschool program here called "Smoking is for Losers" where I go around to elementary schools teaching them how bad smoking is and how cool vaping is. I show them tricks like vapor rings, tornados, etc. Every kid usually goes home with a vape, mostly AIO systems. I make a tidy profit and the kids learn not to smoke. I'm thinking of getting an ice cream truck and turning it into a Vapor Truck with LED's and a fog machine to blow fog out from underneath.

 

[Baditude]

It depends on how soon I can get to them. I have an unofficial afterschool program here called "Smoking is for Losers" where I go around to elementary schools teaching them how bad smoking is and how cool vaping is. I show them tricks like vapor rings, tornados, etc. Every kid usually goes home with a vape, mostly AIO systems. I make a tidy profit and the kids learn not to smoke.

You forgot to add being a step ahead of the "boots on the ground" FDA enforcers.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

Those candy cigarettes you can still buy on Amazon,. I have a cigarette machine from the 70's that despense them. I keep it in my craft room aka my man cave.

Those damned cigarette machines always, always ALWAYS ripped me off!

And the bartender would just shrug at me and say, "tough luck, kid!"

 

[CMD-Ky]

I put a quarter in, most times it worked. When it didn't, it was TS.

Those damned cigarette machines always, always ALWAYS ripped me off!

And the bartender would just shrug at me and say, "tough luck, kid!"

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

Very timely thread - I have been collecting some research (U.S. only) and was going to start a similar thread soon. Given you beat me to the presses, I'll share my quick opinions and some charts and links I found. While I do love math, I don't want to get into statistical mumbo jumbo, just common sense conclusions.

The first chart shows youth cigarette use over the last 25+ years. It peeks at 25% for 12th graders, 18% for 10th and 10% for 8th around 1996. After that, use PLUMMETS across the board - great news for millions of young Americans that dodged an addiction bullet and shortened life.

The second chart shows ALL "tobacco" product use, including e-cigs, from 2011 to 2016. I am drawing some conclusions (not proof) based on my observations of this data and life experiences.

1. Teens are risk-taking machines (I have lifelong scars to prove it) because most don't understand the concept of death. This is even more true in today's gaming culture where death typically means waiting to respawn or reload (unfortunately). This is consistent with the first data column cluster for "Any" tobacco product type - it has remained stable over 5 years. We cannot regulate teens taking fewer risks - good parenting might help a little. C'est la vie.
2. "Combustible" use has dropped by almost 1/3 and "Cigarettes" by almost 1/2 (from 16% to 8%) over the period of 6 years measured - consistent with the first chart of declining cigarette use. Great news - let's throw a cloudy BYOV party to celebrate!
3. "E-Cigarettes" use has increased about 6X from about 2-12% during the period, peaking in 2015. Alone, this is not good news since I believe most responsible adults don't want kids vaping.
4. The steady and sharp decline we saw following the 1996 cigarette use peak in the first chart saw a 50% reduction in 12th grade (using them as the example) cigarette use in about 11 years ('96 to '07). Then we see another almost 50% reduction from 2011 to 2016 - just 6 years. The rate of decline of cigarette use has accelerated during the same period vaping use has been exponential! Not a coincidence IMO.

So here's the silver lining on the teen vaping cloud (pun intended) - I believe some teens that would have smoked cigs opted for vaping and some that had already started smoking converted. Once again, this is just an observation and without deep analysis I couldn't tell you if there's statistical significance and not even sure if the publicly available data set is granular enough to validate my hypothesis. I just hope the FDA knows that if they target the e-cig industry, it could have negative consequences for decreasing use of cigarettes, and other risky behaviours, but I still feel optimistic they won't significantly disrupt the vaping industry...I hope?

Cas002

Good stuff. I hope you're planning to submit that to FDA in response to their recent solicitation for comment.

If you are or do, call a press conference first and publicize (1) your research and (2) the fact that you are submitting it. Do that and your comment goes to the top of the stack.