Vaping

one doctor on NPR basically said smoke/eat the flower instead.

I'm pretty sure this is the CDC's current recommendation. Nobody knows quite what is causing the lung injuries on the vaping, but there's a strong suspicion it's the stuff they use to extract the THC into the vaping oil (be it vitamin E or whatever).

I quit smoking 8 years ago and love my vape. Kids vaping instead of smoking seems like progress to me, but no drugs would be better obviously. My thoughts here pertain to nicotine since kids obviously should not be doing THC!

The situation is not helped by government propaganda like stillblowingsmoke.org which is packed with so many fallacies that any critical thinker would write off the whole anti-vape argument as BS. The recent rash of pulmonary problems I hear touted by the media only aggrivate this problem - parents will hear "vaping bad" and stop listening, while kids (who are great at arguing) will look deeper and stop listening after they realize that the pulmonary problems are actually linked to illegally sourced THC vaping products. @tiningI checked out the website above and did not see anything new along these lines, though it was a bit less BS. They still mention formaldehyde which from what i have found is only produced under conditions that would make it painful to inhale the vapor

We do know a lot a lot about nicotine - It is addictive. It is expensive. If I was looking at this from the perspective of a teenager, erectile dysfunction is the thing that would make me pay attention. There is also new research finding that cardio impact of vaping may be similar to smoking but kids probably aren't going to worry about that too much. Individual flavors seem to be the big unknown and the source of concerning chemicals BUT public education fails us here; instead of saying "don't vape flavors A, B, & C" they say "Aughh! Flavors are scary! you better stay away!" Stopping vaping would be great, but can't we try to mitigate the consequences in the mean time?

What I've learned from nursing: You change patient behavior by educating. You educate by being a trustworthy source. You'd think we would have learned our lesson from the war on drugs by now.

On 9/27/2019 at 12:01 PM, Nurse Trini said:

We have been instructed to get very aggressive on vaping. I've been ordered to carefully check the students who come into the office for the various paraphernalia (e-cigs, vials, etc...). We've added cotinine (nicotine) testing to our regular drug testing. Still, it's a drop in the bucket (they've talked about screening all students but I don't know if it will come to that).

If we find the paraphernalia we can place the student on ongoing sanctions (as if we caught them with drugs or whatever). If it's just a positive cotinine test we inform the parents (and possibly they get disqualified from athletics, not my department).

how do they want you to check them? Empty their pockets? shake out their sweaters? They can still hide it in a waist band, bra, boot, etc. I won't put my hands on a child to check them.

4 minutes ago, Flare said:

how do they want you to check them? Empty their pockets? shake out their sweaters? They can still hide it in a waist band, bra, boot, etc. I won't put my hands on a child to check them.

Especially when they are the size of a thumb drive. This is the discussion going on in my school. We can't do a pat down - no one in my school can.

The addiction piece is real. But like I said, even trying to let a HS student leave during a study hall to go outside the building for a smoke/vape break is challenging given that non smoking/vaping restrictions in public areas and areas around schools.

And nicotine can be damaging to the teenage brain; issue is we don't have any true direct studies to know the full potential of the damage so this generation is kinda out guinea pig (Interesting NPR article here). And one JUUL pod contains the amount of nicotine found in 20 cigarettes.

And yes, I have used the sexual effect on erection and general sexual drive (kids are intrigued that hunger and sexual drive are controlled by the same part of the brain) but one barrier I ran into with my 7-10th grade students was they hadn't actually learned how the brain works in science class yet. We don't teach biology until 11th grade (some other places in 9th), so it have also been starting with a basic lesson in neurotransmitters.

Not health office referrals, but every student who is sent to the discipline office has their pockets and personal effects checked. I do a quick pat down on what remains as well.

It is so bad here.

I've called the ambulance once because a kid was basically in a drug induced psychosis.

Had another one who had a seizure because of it.

They are using the vape pens for concentrated THC, there's been talk about it being mixed with heroin too.

The scary part is all the uncontrolled gunk in the THC blends that is tearing up people's lungs.

I was emailed this interesting video. I already knew about some of the vape cloaking devices, but not all. https://www.today.com/video/students-are-hiding-vaping-devices-in-plain-sight-70976581947

I just saw on our local news this morning that the first double lung transplant to a teen with vaping related illness just happened yesterday. I am not sure how I feel abut this. Hoping it is a wake up call to teens, but also know that they often think "it won't happen to me", or even worse "I can just get a lung transplant"...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/12/health/vaping-double-lung-transplant/index.html

It's definitely a growing concern. We're seeing the same trend, more students caught, and many of them are genuinely struggling with dependence. Traditional discipline alone isn't working here either, so we're exploring support-based interventions and peer-led education.

What's tricky is that many of these newer devices, like the RandM Tornado and similar disposables, are super discreet and flavored, which makes them even more appealing to teens. Education for both students and parents is key right now. Would love to hear what alternative strategies others are trying, definitely a team effort!