By: Cooper Chung
Seen a Vape?
Have you ever seen teens vaping outside of school or in your neighborhood? Well, this is the post to review. Many teens are troubled and have gotten introduced to vaping at a young age (11-12). Troubled teens often resort to vaping when having an issue or just when feeling down on themselves. Vaping can be very addicting, so once teens begin, their lack of control prevents them from stopping. Let's figure out why vaping is so harmful to teens, and get to the bottom of the question: "Why do teens vape?"
What is a JUUL?
Before we answer this question, we need to find the source of these toxic drugs. The most common vape found are the JUUL vapes. The JUUL vape is a battery-charged flash drive-sized vape containing high levels of nicotine. The nicotine levels are so high, that according to the website cdc.gov/tobacco, "According to the manufacturer, a single JUUL pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of 20 regular cigarettes." The article later explains how they fit such high levels of nicotine in such a small item with the use of nicotine salts. The CDC states, "JUUL is one of a few e-cigarettes that use nicotine salts, which allow particularly high levels of nicotine to be inhaled more easily and with less irritation than the free-base nicotine that has traditionally been used in tobacco products, including e-cigarettes." This salt is an effective way to pack an enormous amount of nicotine to keep the user hooked to their product.
What is Nicotine?
Now let's talk about nicotine. Nicotine is an essential chemical in all addictive drugs including tobacco, cigarettes, and of course, vaping. Nicotine forces addiction by releasing dopamine in the brain. When you inhale the vape, the smoke immediately heads to the brain, with the objective of releasing dopamine inside. The release of this dopamine causes the user to have a good feeling. Naturally, the human brain will crave more of this good feeling, inevitably causing the teen to come back for more. According to the website https://www.hss.gov.nt.ca/, it states "Within seconds of inhaling cigarette smoke or vape mist, or using chewing tobacco, nicotine causes the release of dopamine in the brain, which gives people a good feeling. Over time, the brain begins to crave that feeling from nicotine and people need to use more and more tobacco to get that same good feeling." This website elaborates on why nicotine is so addicting and how teens get easily attracted to it.
What Could Possibly go Wrong?
Vaping will also inevitably bring many catastrophic effects and outcomes such as risks of heart attacks, irresistible addictions, and even cancer. As most of you know, vaping and cigarettes produce lots of smoke, This smoke will spread into your lungs and spread nicotine throughout your body. The nicotine spikes your blood pressure and adrenaline. The rise in blood pressure will increase your chances of a heart attack, maybe even resulting in death. Another effect that vaping will ensue is addiction. The feeling of releasing dopamine will be too addicting, and even if you try and ignore the feeling of craving for it, your body will experience withdrawal symptoms. This information was taken from hopkinsmedicine.org, which states " It causes you to crave a smoke and suffer withdrawal symptoms if you ignore the craving. Nicotine is a toxic substance. It raises your blood pressure and spikes your adrenaline, which increases your heart rate and the likelihood of having a heart attack."
DON'T VAPE!
Teen vaping is a serious issue, so try and encourage your children or friends to stay away from such harmful and addicting drugs, and maybe you'll even save a life. Avoiding these vapes can lead to peaceful and successful lives, so please try to eliminate them from your lives. These vapes will one day be the downfall of generations to come, and we need to prevent them from even starting.