According to recent studies, vapes aren’t as popular as they used to be. Maybe it’s the sickening smell of watermelon ice with a touch of lead. Maybe it’s the fact that one vape can have 600 cigarettes worth of nicotine. Maybe it’s the fact that, in reality, vapes contain no vapor at all, instead opting for what is scientifically known as a “chemical aerosol.”

     “I think that when vaping hit its height across the country was when kids truly thought vaping was a safe alternative,” Assistant Head of Upper School and US Academic Dean Anne Michelle Frey said. “It used to be a bigger problem [at Shorecrest] than it currently is.” 

     This decline, at least at Shorecrest, might result from changes in the health class curriculum over the past few years: the school has shifted focus away from physical fitness and onto mental health, nutrition and safe choices.

     “I don’t think it’s an accident that Brian’s [classroom] is next to [mine],” Upper School Health Teacher and Coach Jonathan Tallon said, in reference to Upper School Counselor Brian Wiley, who teaches the mental health unit in the freshman health course.

     It’s easy to see why forging connections between mental health and physical well-being is beneficial. Teens often turn to substances to cope with stressors, especially when advertisements suggest these products can fix the biggest issues facing overworked children — fatigue, boredom or lack of motivation.

     This is exactly the problem that health classes everywhere should fix. In an ideal world, these curricula adequately discourage the use of addictive substances through well-developed units on mental health and demonstrations of the real long-term risks.

     But it’s hard to control what products are advertised to children outside of school. After all, the reason vaping caught on in the first place was due to deceptive marketing, making users think it was healthier than smoking.

     The truth is, as e-cigarettes decline in popularity, other products take their place, and companies selling addictive substances aren’t any less manipulative. For example, nicotine pouches, like those produced by Zyn and Velo, are much more discreet than anything you can smoke. 

     “There is deceptive marketing associated with [nicotine pouches]. Some are labeled with terms like ‘tobacco-free,’ ‘zero-tobacco.’ It makes the products seem like they do not contain an addictive substance when, in fact, they do,” Dr. Meghan Morean ’00, research scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, said.

     Worse, most advertisements for nicotine pouches emphasize how discreet they are. Typical tobacco products are known to be unhealthy and conspicuous. Alternatively, pouches are small and easy to hide. Ideal for a school environment. 

     A study on nicotine pouch advertisements, co-authored by Morean, found that the campaigns intensely focused on the product’s ease of use and published over 80% of their advertisements on social media. 

     Clearly, adults are not their target demographic.

     But tobacco companies are at a disadvantage. Despite their best efforts, when the word “nicotine” enters the picture, alarm bells go off. Thanks to the past 30 years of anti-smoking messaging, it is relatively common knowledge that the stuff in vapes, cigarettes and nicotine pouches is bad for you. 

     Health courses everywhere clearly need to stay current. And while it’s a great first step to discourage students from abusing drugs in the first place, what about those who are already addicted and need help quitting? 

     “At [that] point, use is not really driven much or at all by pleasure anymore. It is driven, in large part, by a need to avoid withdrawal symptoms,” Dr. Morean said. Unfortunately, this aspect is especially profitable for corporate America.

     Wiley does have resources available to those who struggle with addiction, and Shorecrest students have an abundance of trusted adults on campus.

     According to the handbook, any use of illicit substances on campus is subject to “strong disciplinary response,” with suspension and expulsion being the only consequences listed as examples. 

     “We do rely on students to come and share,” US Head Dean and 12th Grade Dean Stacy Alexander said. “What I can say is that in our handbook, it lays out very clearly the consequences of vaping on campus. Having [illicit substances] on campus is breaking the law.”

     Alexander also stated that student well-being comes before discipline, but the school has no pre-determined course of action regarding addiction.

     “Obviously, [it’s] situational. If someone comes to us and says, ‘I have a problem,’ we’d throw everything that we have, as far as support goes, to them,” she said.