There is a mutual misunderstanding that anti-vapers and even the Surgeon General likes to spread about vaping and youth. The myth deals with vaping acting as a gateway to smoking or other drug use. Yet, there has been substantial evidence to refute these claims. In the latest Monitoring The Future Survey (MTF) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, teens surveyed produced data that proved smoking is at an all-time low among teens.
About 50,000 high school aged students are surveyed annually by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, even following up with a sample group of graduates. The survey found that cigarette use dropped from 16.3 percent to 10.5 percent in 12th graders and reduced from 9.1 percent to 4.9 percent in 10th graders. Aside from smoking, teens are even vaping less with a 22 percent decline of use within the last 30 days. And fewer than 25 percent of 12th graders surveyed reported vaping nicotine.
Various reports that claim vaping to be a gateway to worse and unhealthier practices are only exaggerated or fail to address their evidence with critical analysis. For example, investigators will site data that used questionable methodology, small samples, or likely had sponsor influence.
Vaping has thus far not proved itself to be a practice that is a gateway to other drugs for impressionable youth. In fact, they are more aware of the health effects than are adults. Only 21 percent of 8th graders believed that vaping “poses a risk of harm,” while 36 percent of adults believe vaping to be as destructive as cigarettes.
Today’s youth has acted more critically and healthy. Vaping is not to blame as a smoking gateway or a danger to society. Vaping has actually been saving lives.
To find out more about how vaping is safe to use, especially when transitioning from smoking, visit your local Allentown e-cigarette store.