Stuck in a haze
Since its release in 2003, the e-cigarette has swept through schools and the younger generations. In 2023, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 12.6% of U.S. high school students actively use tobacco products. Of that 12.6%, 10% use e-cigarettes, or vapes.
“Just because nicotine tastes fruity doesn’t make it better,” Phinn, a senior at Santa Fe Public Schools, said in a recent interview. Phinn, who requested his full name not be published, has been using both vapes and cigarettes for the last couple of years; now he’s trying to quit.
He is not alone. As of 2023, an estimated 25% of New Mexico’s high school students were using e-cigarettes, nearly double the national average, according to Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a nonprofit fighting tobacco-related harm and misuse. In Santa Fe County, e-cigarette use in 2021 was reported at a similar rate of 25.7% among high school respondents, according to the Youth Risk & Resiliency Survey.
Even though the legal age for purchasing both cigarettes and vapes is 21, local high schoolers are struggling with nicotine addiction.
According to the Santa Fe Public Schools code of conduct, when students are caught in possession of illegal substances (including nicotine products) it must be reported to the police and will warrant disciplinary action such as long-term suspension, a teen court referral or even expulsion. But high schoolers still report seeing nicotine use out of view of administrators.
Santa Fe High School junior Zavia Burton, 17, mostly sees nicotine use in bathrooms “where large groups go together,” she said in a recent text message.
She herself doesn’t partake but noted “[the] administration can’t really do anything about it.”
Santa Fe High School junior Aislinn Hubbard, 16, sees it too.
“It’s really common to see students doing that stuff [vaping],” Hubbard said. “From my experience, students are really good at hiding it, and nobody really talks about it, either.”
At the New Mexico School for the Arts, the situation is similar.
“It’s rare to go into a bathroom and not be hit with a cloud of fruit-scented vapor,” said junior Maddie Joseph, 16.
Of course, nicotine products of any kind are banned at NMSA, and students caught using nicotine are disciplined on a three-strike policy, according to NMSA school officials.
In an email, Head of School Eric Crites explained that initially, students will simply be forced to surrender their tobacco, and parents will be notified of their possession. However, the secondand third-strike could result in possible in-school suspension and meetings with a counselor to discuss the harms of nicotine and possible cessation options.
When asked last week, neither Santa Fe Public Schools nor New Mexico School for the Arts was able to provide specific numbers regarding how many students have been disciplined this school year for nicotine possession.
But even if Santa Fe’s high schools were able to crack down on student nicotine use in school, the root of the problem — addiction — wouldn’t be solved.
“Many students I know can’t make it through the school day without it,” Joseph said.
Phinn said from his experience with nicotine addiction, “If someone else is telling you ‘You have to quit,’ or, you know, you’re seeing it in the news, you’re not going to want to do it. You have to want to quit yourself.”
While vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes — which are responsible for 80% to 90% of lung cancer deaths — vapes often contain harmful chemicals and heavy metals, and young people who use e-cigarettes are more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future, according to the CDC.
Phinn was first exposed to nicotine through vaping, but “from there it led to cigarettes, and then from there it led to more cigarettes,” he said. For him, nicotine addiction meant an overall worse mood and performance in school.
“Last year when I was smoking a lot, I was kinda failing most of my classes and just barely scraping by,” he said. “In general, it brings your whole mood down.”
The most common reason high schoolers try vaping is because their friends use, or have used, e-cigarettes, while stress or feelings of anxiety and depression can lead to continued use of nicotine products, according to the CDC.
Phinn said he first tried an “Elf Bar,” a brand of e-cigarettes, because of stress, but he believes one of the biggest roadblocks to quitting is “people around you who enable you to smoke.” However, Phinn is ready to stop. “The first thing that helped was telling everyone that I am quitting” and “telling them to not give me stuff,” he said.
When around others who smoke or vape, maintaining a mentality that nicotine is “gross” and having others give reminders that it’s gross is a big help, Phinn added.
Teens who are trying to quit don’t have to struggle on their own. In an effort to reduce teen nicotine addiction, specifically vaping, the New Mexico Department of Health in 2022 launched a program called Live Vape Free, which provides resources to help teens quit. According to the program’s website, teens can text VAPEFREE to 873373 to register for a free, confidential program that connects them with educational materials, coaches and other students to help them overcome addiction.
Cora Thompson is a junior at The MASTERS Program. Contact them at corat.9675@gmail.