COSTLY HABIT

E-cigarette products are being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after 380 cases of lung illness in 36 states and 7 deaths have been reported.

It is illegal for people under the age of 21 to purchase e-cigarettes or other tobacco products, but teens are still getting them. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a recent report from the CDC found that e-cigarette use rose from 1.5% to 21% among high school students and from 0.6% to 5.3% among middle school students from 2011 to 2018. A National Institutes of Health study found that about 6% of teens using e-cigarettes used them to digest THC from marijuana. If you are wondering why the FDA has not moved faster to call out America’s youth getting addicted to nicotine and inhaling oils into their lungs, consider this: In 1828, two German chemists isolated nicotine from the tobacco plant and identified it as a poison. As awareness of the harmful effects of nicotine grew, 26 states banned its sale to minors by 1890. It was more than 100 years later, in 1994, that the FDA officially recognized nicotine as a drug that produced dependency. The FDA did not have the power to regulate the production and advertisement of tobacco products until the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave it that power in 2009. To date, the FDA has not yet approved any electronic nicotine-delivery system as safe and effective for use as a tobacco cessation aid. Juul Labs, a popular brand of vaporizers, is quick to point out that it is not designed to get people off nicotine or to treat nicotine dependence. Juul is designed to give smokers an alternative delivery system and it’s so popular that Altria, which sells Marlboro and other tobacco brands, invested $13 billion in Juul for a 35% state in 2018. One Juul device costs $35-$50 and the pods — which can have as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes — are about $4. Juul pods come in flavors such as watermelon, mango and mint. This week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used an executive action to ban sales of flavored e-cigs. For 90 days, the only two flavors customers will be able to buy are tobacco and menthol. Michigan passed similar legislation last week.

Confiscated vaping devices from high school students.

Most patients have reported using e-cigarette products containing THC. Many patients have reported using THC and nicotine. Some have reported the use of e-cigarette products containing only nicotine.