Vapes in disguise: addicting a new generation

It smells like candy, looks like a highlighter and for millions of teens, it’s an addiction they never saw coming.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one and a half million middle and high school students admit to using e-cigarettes or vapes even though it’s illegal for them to buy them.

Josephine Shapiro reflected back on her awkward 14-year old self.

“So I remember in middle school, I was a very anxious kid, and I had a really hard time making friends,” the 19-year-old said.

What started as a way to fit in soon became something she couldn’t stop.

“They were just passing it around and I'm like directly in the line of the wind blowing, so I'm getting this smell,” Shapiro said. “It smelled like a lollipop or like a blue raspberry flavored gum.”

After just a few hits from a vape, she was hooked.

“In the moment I was like, ‘oh that’s great,” Shapiro said. “ But I didn't want to stop.”

“These devices are marketed to kids,” said Jim Carroll, former U.S. drug czar during President Donald Trump’s first term. “They’re marketing them to children, plain and simple.”

He said more needs to be done to crack down on manufacturers making these vapes because those that look like harmless toys and smell like candy are anything but.

“This is meant to fool parents, teachers to think their child is playing a video game,” Carroll said. “Meanwhile, this contains 20,000 puffs of nicotine.”

Nicotine is a “highly” addictive substance that “can harm adolescent brain development” along with increasing the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and depression, according to the CDC.

The packaging doesn’t always say how much nicotine the device contains, but News4 found one Juul pod has as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes, while some popular vapes have as much nicotine as 20 packs of cigarettes — that’s the equivalent of 400 cigarettes in a single device.

“We’re talking a huge amount of nicotine, and teens oftentimes don’t necessarily know that,” said Dr. Susan Walley with Children’s National Hospital.

She said even though the Food and Drug Administration has banned most flavored vapes, they still remain widely available, and that needs to change.

“Over 99% of products have not been authorized by the FDA that you still see, unfortunately, on the shelves,” Walley said. “So there’s a huge issue, particularly when we think about these youth-appealing products with flavors such as, berry raz, OMG blow pop”

The Vapor Technology Association, which represents over a thousand members of the vaping industry, agrees there needs to be laws to “restrict industry marketing that appeals to underage customers” but says an all-out ban on flavored e-cigarettes would be detrimental to adults who depend on the device to help quit smoking.

As for Shapiro, she’s now a freshman at George Washington University and is using her voice to warn others.

Last summer, she was asked to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the dangers of vaping.

She admitted she hasn’t been able to kick the habit.

Shapiro also said that companies are “profiting off” of getting kids to start vaping.

Almost all of the e-cigarettes sold in the U.S. are on the market illegally, and even though the FDA has sent warning letters to companies, new vapes are popping up all the time.

As for parents of kids who need help, there are resources out there including organizations like the Truth Initiative and websites like teen.smokefree.gov where young people can talk and text with experts to quit vaping.