More teens vape; binge drinking, opioid use dip
The percentage of high school seniors who say they vaped nicotine in the past 30 days nearly doubled this year, an increase federal officials want to curb with new rules and restrictions.
In the annual Monitoring the Future survey on drug use among adolescents, federally funded researchers reported Monday that more than one in three high school seniors and nearly one in three sophomores say they vaped at least once in the past year.
Nearly 21 percent of high school seniors say they vaped a nicotine product within the past 30 days, up from 11 percent a year ago – the largest one-year increase of any substance use in the survey’s 43-year history.
The survey of 44,482 students from 392 public and private schools was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.
Use of other illicit drugs among teens was flat or declined. Students are drinking less, with lower rates of binge drinking or being drunk. Misuse of prescription opioids also decreased.
Federal officials called the rise in vaping alarming. Officials and antismoking activists have called for more education about the potential harms of nicotine addiction and more oversight of the way the burgeoning e-cigarette industry markets e-cigarettes.
“Nicotine is quite an addictive drug, particularly when you are exposed to nicotine as an adolescent,” NIDA Director Nora Volkow said. “The concern is these kids that become addicted to nicotine from vaping also may transition to tobacco smoking.”
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb described teen vaping as an “epidemic.” The FDA announced proposals last month to curb underage vaping by restricting sales of sweet-flavored e-cigarette liquid.
E-cigarettes were developed to help adult smokers quit tobacco. Robin Koval, CEO of the Truth Initiative, a nonprofit tobacco-control organization, said the industry is “largely unregulated or loosely regulated” and doesn’t do enough to curb underage use.
Two in three 10th-graders told the Michigan researchers it was “fairly easy” or “very easy” to get a vaping device or nicotine-packed liquid pod.
“Kids have been able to get their hands on and use them in ways that are a lot easier to use than a combustible cigarette,” Koval said. “Once you are addicted to nicotine, you are addicted to nicotine.”
Researchers found that cigarette smoking continued a yearslong decline in 2018, hitting the lowest level in the survey’s 43 years. Fewer high school seniors used other tobacco products, including the once-popular hookah pipes, smokeless tobacco and tiny cigars.
Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, an advocacy group, said the belief that vaping teens will turn to cigarettes or other tobacco is a “mythical gateway effect.”
“Teenage cigarette smoking had stalled for several years prior to vaping coming to market, which was then followed by the record breaking declines in smoking once teens found different, less risky products to experiment with,” he said.