Tackling youth vaping: Oklahomans aim for legislation and education to curb the

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Addressing youth vaping. It’s top of mind for some Oklahomans as we’re now less than a week away from legislative session.

Health experts, lawmakers and even students discussed the issue during a panel with the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) on Tuesday, January 30.

The panel touched on how to prevent and stop children from vaping to ensure young Oklahomans have clear minds and clean lungs.

According to TSET, the high school vaping rate in Oklahoma is higher than the national average. 1 in 5 Oklahoma teens vape on a regular basis.

“We know when we are out school administrators are always telling us kids from elementary school on up to high school, finding vapor products with them,” TSET Executive Director Julie Bisbee said.

Some students are also noticing this too, and they partially blame it on the internet.

“The reason why is to seem cool,” Lacey with the TSET Youth Action for Health Leadership said. “Everybody is doing it, and they should too. Now it’s even 10–13-year-olds that are being targeted and think that it’s cool through social media to vape. One thing we can do is update policies that regulate vapes, and educate teenagers in the community.”

Panel experts say vaping has the exact opposite effect of how it’s advertised, and kids should be given a more accurate perspective.

“Saying perhaps with some messaging that using nicotine vapes is actually not going to improve your mental health,” Dr. Amy Cohn with the TSET Health Promotion Research Center said. “It might in the moment make you feel better, but in the longer term you’re going to see those symptoms get worse if you continue to use chronically. I think that that’s a really important message to tell people: it might look cool now, but a few years down the road if you want to quit it’s going to be a lot harder to do, especially if you don’t already have those coping mechanisms.”

In an effort to get this situation under control, State Rep. Jon Echols (R-Oklahoma City) is proposing House Bill 3971.

“What it does is continue to move the regulatory framework Oklahoma has already set up,” State Rep. Echols said. “It allows additional law enforcement to get these illegal vapes out of the state of Oklahoma, especially out of the hands of children.”

Echols says there’s a “black market” for vapes in Oklahoma, only they’re being sold on shelves.

“What we have in the state of Oklahoma right now, anyone with teenagers right now, they know vaping among kids is an absolute epidemic.”

Sometimes those products end up in the hands of children. as vapes are being marketed as highlighters or something that has an appealing flavor.

“It is embarrassing the job the federal government is doing. Frankly if the FDA would be doing its job, bills like mine would be unnecessary.”