University of Nebraska vaping study shows increasing teen use, including marijuana – Lincoln Journal Star

“This is another reminder that America is undertaking a risky social experiment by legalizing and especially destigmatizing cannabis, and the potential effects are hard to foresee or control.”

In the meantime, the University of Nebraska Medical Center brought attention this month to a study by researcher Daisy Dai of e-cigarette use by teens, including vaping marijuana.

Dai is an associate professor in the UNMC College of Public Health. Her studies, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show that U.S. teens are using e-cigarettes and vaping addictive or mind-altering substances more than once suspected.

Her observational study, analyzing responses to the National Youth Tobacco Survey of 38,000 students in grades 6-12, shows marijuana use in e-cigarettes increased among U.S. middle and high school students from 2017 to 2018.

Dai has studied e-cigarettes for five years and said their use has recently increased quickly among adolescents. Her study was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products.

Since 2012, she said in the Journal of the American Medical Association article, more states are relaxing the restrictions on marijuana use, and social acceptability of marijuana use is shifting among adolescents.

Dai’s study showed that in one year, teens reported their use of marijuana went from 11% to nearly 15%.

Dai said the increase is concerning because use of the drug could lead to adverse effects in brain development, mental health and academic performance. Another concern is severe respiratory diseases.

As of Dec. 17, 2,506 cases of vaping-related lung disease had been reported in the United States, including 54 deaths. Sixteen percent of cases were in youths under 18, and 38% in young adults 18 to 24.

In 1,782 of those cases, 80% used at least some products containing THC, and 35% exclusively used products containing THC.

In 2018 nationwide, 53.5% of students vaping at the time of the survey used marijuana in their e-cigarettes.

Nebraska has reported 15 cases of the vaping-related acute lung disease at this time, and one resulted in death, said state epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Safranek. It’s been several months since a case has been reported in Nebraska, he said, a pattern seen nationwide.

The range in ages for the Nebraska cases is 17 to 68 involving 10 males and five females.

“We’re hoping there’s been some reduction in overall vaping,” Safranek said. “Especially what you might call the black market products that are being vaped.”

Dai said the increase in marijuana use could be attributable to the use of “pod mod” products, small easy-to-conceal devices that aerosolize liquid solutions containing nicotine, flavoring and other contents; access to marijuana through friends, family members and illicit dealers; and reduced perception of the harms of marijuana use.

Safranek said the progressive use of e-cigarettes is of grave concern to anyone who’s worried about public health. And it looks like about 20% of high schoolers are vaping.

“And we see this as an on ramp to nicotine addiction,” he said.

The Nebraska Legislature did an interim study (LR173) this year to examine health concerns related to the public use and secondhand exposure to e-cigarettes and vaping devices, sponsored by Sen. Dan Quick of Grand Island. In the last session senators raised the legal age to use vaping devices to 19. 

Sarah Linden, president of Nebraska Vape Vendors Association, testified at the LR173 hearing in September, and told senators nicotine vapor products have been regulated by the FDA since August 2017 for their ingredients, marketing, labeling, and other features including tamper-proof seals. THC products are not yet federally regulated as they are not currently legal nationally.

“It’s not nicotine vaping that’s causing these illnesses,” Linden said.

Safranek said anyone in the public health community would say your lungs should receive 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen and a small amount of other gases.

“And anything you’re inhaling other than that is going to have some kind of consequences,” he said.