Vaping Devices: Is This What the High Schoolers of America Have to Fear? [OPINION]

A string of vaping-related illnesses and deaths has left the country murmuring in the past few months. With a death toll of 33 and climbing, legislators across the nation have been weighing the possibilities of taking preventative action. Six states have already passed their own laws regarding the sale and use of vaporized nicotine and marijuana products. The federal government is moving to ban flavored products that are believed to be marketed towards underage nicotine users, due to the alarming number of illnesses affecting minors. It’s a first for some Americans to see our government working with such fervor to prevent the deaths of children. It is the responsibility of this country to keep vaping devices out of the hands of minors before the death toll reaches the thousands, where it could be compared to drug overdoses, car accidents, or gun deaths of minors in the United States since 2014.

After Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland, it sure is a weight lifted off the shoulders of American parents. Their 17-year-olds will be puffing on a good old-fashioned menthol-flavored Juul rather than indulging in some tasty crème brulee. That’s the kind of hard knock lesson we ought to be teaching to the youth of America. This younger generation has it so easy. Their coffee tastes like pumpkin spice. Their cars drive themselves. Their nicotine comes in cucumber and mango flavor. Their schools are already equipped with bright red buttons to press when someone brings a gun to class. They don’t even have to muster through a shaky-voiced conversation with a 911 operator.

It’s no secret that these tiny death devices have infiltrated our schools. They’re stuffed in lockers, zipped away in backpacks, even lingering in jean pockets. They’re passed off between classes. Handed under bathroom stall doors. Whipped out during lunch hours. When the bell chimes and bodies flood the hallways, these subtle interactions get lost in the bustle.  It all happens so quickly, and right under the teachers’ noses. Before anyone has a moment to intervene, a life is taken. Plenty of high schools have police on campus. Some have installed metal detectors. A few have even required that students wear transparent backpacks. Yet, students are still managing to smuggle illicit items through the halls.

High school is a tumultuous experience for any young person. It is difficult to find your place among the mosaic of social groups. Apps like twitter and Instagram completely dominate the way students interact with each other. Those who find themselves alienated from the in-crowd can watch an unattainable façade of happiness and acceptance unfold on their phone screens every night.  When the pressure of fitting in becomes too much for a hormone-ravaged teen to reckon with, it’s far too easy for them to get their hands on something dangerous. Something to help them release the pent-up pain of rejection. 

Plenty of lowerclassman have befriended a senior or two. Freshly 18 and high on budding adulthood, upperclassman often relish in being that “cool” friend that provides for their adoring younger classmates. They’re legally free of their parents. Their driver’s license hands them even more possibility than it did when they were 16. When that frustrated freshman comes asking for a favor, they need only hop in mom’s station wagon and head to their local Walmart. In many states, it’s as easy as whipping out that pretty piece of plastic from their wallets and the goods are at their fingers in minutes. A quick exchange in the parking lot leaves a 14-year-old in possession of a dangerous object intended only for responsible adults. Bringing that easily concealed contraband to school the next day may just give them the sweet leverage over their classmates that they’ve been aching for.

Americans are finally getting the action that is deserved to protect our children from this growing epidemic. We may finally see a day where no student body has to suffer the loss of a classmate. Kids should feel safe in their institutions of education. Teachers should no longer hold their breath when an agitated pupil reaches into an unzipped bag.This can all be achieved by a ban on vaping devices. Did you think I was talking about guns?