To begin, if you didn't know what a Juul looks like, you aren't alone, and as you can see above they walk among us disguised as USB drives.
And while many say that it's still a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes, Dave Dobbins, the chief operating officer of the Truth Initiative, bluntly states, "Jumping off a 10-story building will kill you, and jumping off a two story building will only hurt you," he said, adding that he wouldn't recommend doing either and he wouldn't recommend smoking cigarettes or a Juul.
"Juuling is all the rage right now, and if you think it’s only “those” type of kids who are vaping in place of cigarette smoking, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Ask your teenagers right now if they know what Juuling is, and I guarantee you they’ll tell you they’ve seen kids Juuling right in the middle of class without anyone even knowing they’re doing it- including the teachers"
Mil Schooley, an 18-year-old student in Denver says most of her friends have a JUUL — an e-cigarette that can vanish into a closed fist. When asked roughly how many, she stumbles a bit. "I wanna say like 50 or 60 percent."
"Juul has become a cultural phenomenon and has been called the ‘iPhone of electronic cigarettes". Evidently, Juuling has become so popular that there are now Instagram and social media users whose entire accounts are dedicated to some of their "tricked out" devices or showing off the different "cool" smoke rings they can make. They have elevated this to the status of "art" in many cases.
Personally, there are many things about the Juul or e-cigarettes that I find concerning but here is where we are seeing addiction really come into play. We have been fortunate that most of our students have not had the habit of smoking cigarette. Therefore, they do not need any kind of smoking cessation assistance because they have never been exposed to tobacco and nicotine (smoking cessation is how the Juul was originally branded). But now we have students that never were exposed to any kind of nicotine getting it at highly concentrated levels, and this is where addiction comes into play.
And for some families, catching a child using a Juul is just the beginning.
How do we overcome? Thankfully many students are using our Quick Tip system for things they are seeing at school but further intervention happens at home and communication is the key. Revisit last week's blog to get some excellent tips about effective ways to communicate with your child!
Stay Healthy, Chaps!
-Kristi Waidhofer