For Wanting To Protect the Kids, Policymakers and Bloomberg Dropped the Ball

Lindsey Stroud

One could be forgiven for thinking that flavored vapor products are the worst thing parents need to fear for their children. With the influx of literally hundreds of millions of dollars by billionaire and nanny stater Michael R. Bloomberg funding a campaign to end the sales of flavored tobacco and vapor products, it is hardly any wonder that five states currently ban flavored e-cigarettes. Hundreds of localities have also banned such sales and several states are currently mulling their own statewide prohibitions. The problem is that there is no youth vaping epidemic. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quit using that term. There is, however, an alarming and growing mental health crisis among American youth that policymakers and Bloomberg-funded public health groups have dropped the ball on.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (finally) published the 2021 results for the biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey(YRBS), which examines high school students’ behaviors, diets and substance use, among other things.

The results should be welcome to all those purporting to care about children because youth use of traditional tobacco products has hit record lows and youth vaping was seemingly cut in half between 2019 and 2021.

In 2021 (according to the YRBS), 17.8 percent of U.S. high school students reported having ever tried a combustible cigarette. This is a whopping 74.6 percent decrease from 1991 (the first year the YRBS was conducted) when 70.1 percent had tried a cigarette. Current use (defined as having used the product on at least one occasion in the 30 days prior) has decreased by 86.2 percent from 27.5 percent of high school students currently smoking in 1991 to 3.8 percent last year. These are some of the lowest levels recorded. Other tobacco products including cigars and smokeless tobacco are also at record lows with only 2.5 percent reporting current use of smokeless and 3.1 percent reporting currently using cigars.

The YRBS only started recording e-cigarette use in 2015. Interestingly, youth use of vapor products in 2021 was at a record low with only 36.2 percent reported having ever used an e-cigarette. Only 18 percent of U.S. high school students reported currently using e-cigarettes, which was down 25.3 percent from its peak in 2019 when 32.7 percent reported current e-cigarette use.

This data should be welcome news for opponent organizations that continue to mislead lawmakers about the so-called youth vaping epidemic. Yet, there is even more worrisome data among American youth.

In 2021, nearly half (42.3 percent) of American high schoolers reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. This is one of the highest rates recorded and a 15.3 percent increase from 2019. This is also a 49.5 percent increase from 1999 (the first year the YRBS asked the question).

Worse, in 2021, 10.2 percent of students reported having attempted suicide, which was an 18.1 percent increase from 2019.

These figures are alarming, but policymakers (and Bloomberg-funded public health groups) have seemingly hidden key data that could have been used to address a troubling crisis.

For example, the National Youth Tobacco Survey asked students why they chose to vape. Despite the rhetoric funded by hundreds of millions of Bloomberg dollars, youth are not overwhelmingly using e-cigarettes because of flavors.

In 2021, of U.S. middle and high school students that were currently using e-cigarettes, nearly half or 43.4 percent cited using them because they had felt anxious, stressed and/or depressed. Only 13.2 percent reported using e-cigarettes because of flavorings.

Policymakers and those Bloomberg groups have had this data available to them but have been blindsided by a misleading campaign against alternatives to combustible cigarettes.

What lawmakers are also painfully oblivious to is that youth are reaching out to substances far worse than flavored nicotine vapes to address their mental health needs. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2019 and 2021, the percentage of American youth aged 14 to 18 years old who died from drug overdoses increased by 108 percent. This was largely driven by fentanyl poisonings, too often sold to unsuspecting teens as a fake pill disguised to look a real FDA-approved one.

Policymakers must look at factual data on youth tobacco and vapor product use and not fall victim to phony data that is failing the nation’s children. There are millions of Americans who are unable or unwilling to quit smoking and are without access to what other governments promote as a cessation tool to give up lethal combustible cigarettes. There are more adults who live in fear as state lawmakers debate whether adults should be able to access safer alternatives to smoking. The regulatory agency tasked with promoting the public health has also continued to deny applications for hundreds of thousands of products that have helped millions of American adults quit smoking.

There is no youth vaping epidemic and shame on lawmakers for drinking Bloomberg’s Kool-Aid and failing to protect kids from a growing mental health crisis while denying adult access to tobacco harm reduction products.

Originally published in Medium.