I recently saw an elementary school student vape—an 11-year-old is on his way home.
Do you know that reaction meme called The Blinking Guy? That was me when I walked past the boy, still in his school uniform.
It got me googling vaping, and I soon learned why the young guy was playing with fire.
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The e-liquids used in e-cigarettes are often sweet-flavored products marketed as gummy bears, fruit, popcorn, peanut butter, cookies ‘n’ cream, and even Red Bull and Skittles.
Now it made sense. Use very appealing flavors to young people and entice them to try this new product by changing their attitude. That’s their strategy.
Some e-liquids are even sold in boxes that resemble children’s juice containers.
And the vapes themselves are designed to deceive and encourage stealth vaping by resembling USB drives, asthma inhalers, pens, and even pull cords for hoodies. In addition, young people are targeted through social media sites such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Young people hate to think someone is fooling them, so imagine if they thought they would develop a lifelong addiction to making money.
The message is that if you want to be cool, attractive, and edgy, e-cigarettes are for you.
No wonder the vapor cloud around our schools is getting bigger.
One possible approach for those in charge of caring for young people is to answer the messages mentioned above with the question, “are you being manipulated?”.
Young people hate to think someone is fooling them, so imagine if they thought they would develop a lifelong addiction to making money.
Encouraging children to think critically about e-cigarette marketing is a helpful tactic.
Of course, our first reaction is a lecture or strong criticism, but as we all know, it often has the opposite effect.
Another tactic in this war with e-cigarette marketing is to dispel the myth that the vapor they inhale is just like the steam they see in the shower. The aerosol created by vaping is not “just water vapor”.
But in some ways, as parents and significant others, we fight with one hand tied behind our backs. It occurred to me to inquire where exactly these vapes and their e-liquids were bought, and I was amazed to learn that teenagers usually got them through the mail.
Somehow it’s okay to put these products on children under 18. Call me naive, but that surprised me. This is where I get my reading, I guess. Be aware of what is happening around you.
Get to know your postman.
