Member-only story
Harm Reduction. A Case Study
For youth, E-cigarettes cannot be E-liminated.
“I took my first hit of the JUUL when I was ten. It wasn’t scary. I didn’t even understand how it could be bad for me. It felt like nothing. But, everyone in school around me was doing it, so I kept doing it. JUUL led to vaping with marijuana. Marijuana led to alcohol. Alcohol led to cocaine. Anxiety from cocaine led to Xanax. Now I’m here.”
I remained silent as the young man across from me continued to speak.
“I’m twelve years old, and I’ve already overdosed twice. I wish I would have known sooner what that JUUL could do to me,” he sobbed.
Hearing this individual in anguish about the peril this pocket-sized device had created in his life was one of the more challenging experiences I have endured as a social work intern at a residential treatment facility for adolescents with substance use challenges. But I quickly learned he was not the only one. This is a story I would hear over and over and over again.
As of 2019, 1 in 10 middle school students reported using e-cigarettes[i], and of those middle schoolers, more than half reported using JUUL, a flavored e-cigarette brand, as their primary device. 11% of middle school students reported smoking e-cigarettes in the last 30 days, which is almost triple the percentage…
