Editor’s note: This commentary is by Gar Smith, who is the high school prevention coordinator and the lacrosse coach at South Burlington High School.
[A]s the high school prevention coordinator and lacrosse coach for South Burlington High School, I can tell you, there is currently a lingering fear for the health and wellbeing of our students which is shared in communities across Vermont and beyond. The epidemic of nicotine use through e-cigarettes is real and not decreasing. We need to do something or this very real fear will grow.
One of my duties at SBHS is to work with students who are cited for violating our substance abuse policy. By October this year our school resource officer had already written more tickets than he had for the whole of last year. These numbers are going up on campus. We are managing to support the kids the best we can, but there’s only so much we can do. We need lawmakers to pass commonsense legislation that helps protect students from themselves and their peers.
I’m not going to spout a slate of numbers and statistics about the dangers of smoking and the use of e-cigarettes such as Juuls. There’s been a lot written about that already.
My purpose is to paint a picture of life.
The teens I speak with about nicotine use represent the full spectrum — underachieving students from families that have a history of substance abuse to students on the honor roll applying and getting accepted by Ivy League universities.
These students come to me with a variety of reasons they began their foray into these toxic and addictive substances. Some are dealing with anxiety. Others are trying to self-medicate their depression. Some do it just because their friends do it. Or because their parents do it. But every single one of these kids recognizes their dependence on nicotine and each kid is very clear with me that they wish something was different, and that they could stop using. But they can’t stop because the number one reason for all kids using is availability.
We have students in our school that are 18 years old (and older) who run a profitable business with our younger students by selling pods and other nicotine liquids. Like in many school districts, in the South Burlington community, our middle school students ride buses with our high school students. So, now we have 18-year-old students selling to an audience of 11- to 13-year-olds. This is happening every day.
Sadly, there have been instances of violence connected to this drug. Notably in the first month of school there was one student who confronted another student about selling him a half empty pod. This led to three boys ganging up on the one and beating him up and breaking his ribs. It ended with intervention from our state’s justice system. All four boys were freshmen, age 14.
Every student I talk to knows someone who uses nicotine, or uses it themselves. When I ask them if they would support moving the legal age of purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21, they are unified in saying ‘Yes.” There is no hesitation.
I implore legislators to do what is best for the health of all our children now and forever.
