Vaping nicotine or CBD or THC can be hazardous

Ellie Sherry — Reporter

Hospitalizations, excessive coughing and trouble breathing. This is what our generation has been left with since the shift from cigarettes to electronic smoking devices such as vape mods, Juuls and even CBD and THC cartridges.

In recent news there have been more and more cases of people being hospitalized and even dying from smoking electronic devices. While companies like Juul claim they were originally marketing these products to wean people off of smoking cigarettes, what happened was the exact opposite.

In the 90’s, there was a large spike in young adults and teenagers who smoked cigarettes, but after more education surfaced, the number of teens smoking was on a steady decline. However, since the introduction of electronic smoking
devices to the United States in 2006, more and more teens have been smoking. In fact, from 2011 to 2017 the number of underage people using electronic smoking devices has gone up 1,280 percent, according to Lungs.org.

Many people across the country blame this on Juul. Their fruity flavors and marketing strategies were very similar to what Phillip Morris did back in the 90’s. To many who sued these companies, it seems as though they were targeting young people. According to Torhoerman Law, one parent from N.Y. sued Juul for advertising to their 15-year-old daughter that the product was safer than smoking traditional cigarettes.

However, Juul may not be the only smoking device that is making people sick. Another leading cause could be THC and CBD cartridges. Many of the THC cartridges that people get
off of the street, and even some of the name brands that were thought to be safe, like Dank Vapes have lethal doses of vitamin E in them. While vitamin E is beneficial when applied topically or even ingested, when inhaled it is extremely dangerous. Leafly, a cannabis information source, stated that the FDA has expressed concerns about inhaling the substance, but has yet to ban it in vape juices and THC cartridges.

One student at Southern suffered significantly last summer. She had been smoking from illegitimate THC cartridges and she got pneumonia and lost over 40 pounds. She said couldn’t could not go without using them for more than a day, and got extremely sick from it. While she has stopped using THC cartridges, she still continues to use electronic cigarettes. This student also stated that said she had been
introduced at the age of 12 to electronic smoking devices and has continued to use them ever since.

However, while using electronic smoking devices may be very popular amongst young people, not all students use them.

All of this raises the question of whether Conn.should follow in the footsteps of other states like N.Y. in banning fruity flavors of electronic cigarettes.

Coordinator of the Wellness Center, Emily Rosenthal said she thinks it is a big step forward in raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco. With policies, taxes and education, she said the use of these products can be limited.

“I don’t see the value behind the flavors,” she said, “and while I am not a legislator I think that anything that limits the use of tobacco products is a good thing as far as I am concerned.”