Parenting for Prevention
The goal of this newsletter is to keep reporting the latest trends and research on preventing adolescent alcohol and other drug use and related issues.
Parents and school administrators report that vaping swept through their school suddenly and this is confirmed by the latest Monitoring The Future (MTF) study. Since the vapor was undetectable, school personnel did not know students were vaping on school grounds and it took some time for schools to put protocols and procedures in place to deal with this health issue.
Many teens and parents were unaware that the products being vaped contained nicotine. Some are experiencing uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop using or don’t have access to their vape device. Similarly some teens were unaware that they were vaping products containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and have experienced hallucinations and/or become addicted to the THC.
Finally, it is now clear that the act of vaping is harmful to the lungs even when the product doesn’t contain nicotine or THC. By staying current on teen drug trends and alerting parents and professionals to the dangers, it is hoped that other harmful substances will not become popular and catch everyone by surprise.
Editor: Patricia Murphy Warble, LMSW, CPP
