TIME FOR A TALK.
Students express their concerns with governor over vaping crisis
CENTRAL FALLS — Gov. Gina M. Raimondo received an education at Central Falls High School on Wednesday afternoon, as students from the school provided the governor with their thoughts on her recent executive order banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, how the order affects them, and substance abuse issues that are pressing to today’s teenagers.
The governor and Rhode Island Department of Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott hosted a roundtable discussion with a dozen Central Falls High students and educators from the city centered on what Raimondo has deemed a “public
health crisis” – youth vaping.
“I did that because I’m getting more and more worried about young people,” Raimondo said of last week’s executive order, which bars the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in Rhode Island. “I have a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old and I’ve been pretty alarmed at how much vaping I see among kids your age or even younger than you guys.”
“Some say it’s better than cigarette smoking, but the truth is if you get addicted when you’re 12, 13, 14 years old, that’s a lifetime addiction that’s very dangerous,” the governor added. While she called the order a “pretty extreme thing,” she noted it was necessary because “I was scared and I wanted to do more for you guys.”
The first student to address the governor and Health Department director was Central Falls High student Todd Deslaurieis. He expressed some level of worry over the ban on flavored vaping products, as his parents smoked cigarettes but were able to kick the habit by trying e-cigarettes.
“Nothing worked except for vaping,” he said. “I feel as if the sale of e-cigarettes should not be banned in Rhode Island because there’s a fair chance my parents may start smoking again. That’s not only a danger to their health but to mine too.”
Saying “we’re going to keep you alive,” Raimondo noted that Rhode Island chose not to go as far as neighboring Massachusetts – which imposed a four-month ban on all vaping products – because there is “some evidence vaping helps adults quit smoking. That’s why we decided not to do an all-out ban, so adults can still vape and buy these products.”
Alexander-Scott, meanwhile, said Deslaurieis had an “important story” and that the state wanted to make sure the action it took was data-driven. She said youth use of e-cigarettes has spiked recently, and that significant increase has been primarily driven by flavored products.
“A much smaller percentage of adults that use e-cigarettes, we wanted to make sure those that use it for those reasons still have those options available to them with the tobacco flavoring,” Alexander-Scott said. “But the attractive flavors drawn to target youth into vaping is where we want to really take the stance and be able to protect.”
When the governor asked the students how easy it is for teenagers to purchase e-cigarettes, student Beatriz Martens said it’s entirely too simple for people under the age of 18, as those who are older will make the purchase for them. She also raised the issue of adults using vaping products as an alternative to traditional cigarettes.
“For you to ban it, it would be good for youth but terrible for people who started smoking cigarettes,” Martens said of adults seeking to go cold turkey from traditional tobacco. “Someone said he used to smoke in his youth, he tried stopping it but couldn’t. He gets it as medical, but he told me it’s expensive for him to get it in a medical way to help him.”
The issue of vaping with marijuana was brought to the floor by student Desiree Delgado, who said she sees people post about it on social media. Fellow student Fina Fernandes added that while vaping and e-cigarette use among youths is a problem, she doesn’t see it in Central Falls nearly as much as she sees students smoking marijuana or eating edibles.
“In other parts of Rhode Island, I’ve noticed I’ve met a lot of friends, they were telling me about how in their schools they see a lot of kids vaping in the classroom or in class because teachers don’t notice it. Sometimes you can smell it, but you might not know where it’s coming from,” Fernandes said, noting that some of the fruity flavors may smell instead like perfume. “I think it is a problem for the youth to have it accessible to them and to have it be brought into that kind of society for them to be vaping. You could get addicted to it and go to cigarettes, which is way worse than vaping.”
“To kids, it looks like candy. It’s sweet, you like the flavors,” Fernandes later said.
School officials during Wednesday’s roundtable discussion agreed with the sentiment, saying vaping and cigarette smoking is not nearly as prevalent as marijuana use, which they said was attributable to the high cost of e-cigarettes and vaping products compared to the lesser price of marijuana or edibles.
Vernia Carter, a coordinator for the Blackstone Valley Prevention Coalition, said some e-cigarettes and vaping devices are all too easy to conceal – even in a classroom – with staffers showing off products that can be plugged into a computer’s USB port to be charged. Teachers may not even notice this happening in a classroom, Carter said, because the products resemble an everyday pen.
Raimondo scoffed at the idea that these products were aimed exclusively at adults.
“They market it to look like a computer and taste like candy and then they say it’s not targeted at kids, it’s a little hard to believe,” the governor said.
Toward the end of the 45-minute discussion, Deslaurieis wondered aloud as to why the state isn’t trying to ban cigarettes “if they’re far more dangerous not only to the person that smokes but the people that are around them? If we’re talking about things that are dangerous to the youth, why are we not banning cigarettes?”