Thread: I am seeing a disturbing trend on the college campus I work on: young people smoking cigarettes. Now, the realist in me says that these young people are experimenting, especially since they are so far removed from parent’s oversight. But why with cigarettes? We have so
Much evidence that cigarettes are harmful to your health. The students I see smoking surely aren’t of age to smoke, especially as college freshmen, with the age being 21. I know older students aren’t straw purchasing them for the younger students, as I witnessed a group of
Freshmen boys go into a c-store and come out with a pack or Marlboro reds; the oldest boy couldn’t have been over 19, which is 2 years below the legal age for tobacco usage in NYS, and nationwide. It’s obvious they were able to get a fake ID good enough to fool the poor clerk
At the C-Store counter. So, again, I’m left with the question “Why cigarettes?” It used to be I found at least one errant Juul per week; used Juul pods littered the insides of my vehicles, carelessly discarded onto the floors, or seats, of the buses, like gum wrappers. Since
The start of the school year, I’ve found 3 errant Juuls; the used Juul pods covering my floors have decreased to maybe finding one or two pods per week. Why is this happening? While I was always discouraging the usage of Juul by the students who were never smokers, I was happy
That it wasn’t cigarette butts that littered my floors; I was always truthful about Juul, and vaping in general, as well as cigarette smoking: it’s not for non-smokers, if you’ve not smoked before, it’s best not to use a Juul or vape, and for the love of God, dont start smoking!
So back to my question; “why cigarettes?” Well, that group of freshmen boys told me that cigarettes were healthier than vaping; vaping caused close to 100 deaths in the last half of last year; their coaches said they’d rather their athletes smoke than use vapes; at least smoking
won’t kill them in three weeks, unlike a vape. I was shocked! I shared MY smoking story, about how I started, stopped, started dipping, then smoking again, until I finally quit with vaping. How I started at 12mg and weaned myself down to 3mg. They were astonished Vape juice
came in that low of a concentration; they only knew of 30 and 50mg. I explained how it’s not nicotine vaping that killed people, it was vaping tainted THC. One student got pale at mentioning THC; he’d vaped a THC cart his brother gave him from a dispensary. Told him if he had any
EVALI (hate that stupid name) symptoms, he needed to get to hospital immediately, and he needed to tell them he vaped THC. As I discharged the group of students from the bus, they exited. Thanked me for the info, went 50 feet away from the bus, and lit up a damned cigarette;
They’d heard nothing I’d said. They let the fear and paranoia surrounding nicotine vaping consume them; they let a #falsenarrative convince them that smoking was better for them. I don’t blame them; they’re young, impressionable teenagers who really have no clue. I do blame
the people who fed this false narrative for months on end; who set #tobaccoharmreduction back years; who, even though they had the evidence in front of their faces, all they saw was #msabloodmoney; who, through their omissions of truth, have ensured that big tobacco stays alive
for another generation; who have, at every turn, dismissed evidence from well respected medical and scientific bodies, while embracing “evidence” from researchers, who then had to retract their studies, because they failed to disclose info about their subjects. So, I’m calling
y’all out. You, who invented a “youth vaping epidemic,” which is patently false; you, who accuse the vapor industry of advertising to youth, while you do exactly that, with your cute little cartoons, posters, and PSAs on kids shows. You’re on notice: we won’t forget.
CC: @RepDianaDeGette @AOC @RashidaTlaib @CongressmanRaja @SenatorDurbin @MittRomney @SenatorRomney @HHSGov @MassAGO @NewYorkStateAG @FDACommissioner @US_FDA @GavinNewsom @KimReynoldsIA and any others I have missed. We’re watching. Remember, #WeVapeWeVote #vapingsaveslives
