Vaping is still cool in college and beyond for young adults : Shots

Many young people who started vaping nicotine as teens several years ago haven’t quit the habit, data show.

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Many young people who started vaping nicotine as teens several years ago haven’t quit the habit, data show.

Daisy-Daisy/Getty Images

G Kumar’s vaping addiction peaked in college at the University of Colorado, when flavored, disposable vapes were taking off.

The disposables would have more than a thousand puffs in them. “I’d go through, let’s say, 1,200 puffs in a week,” said Kumar, who goes by they/them pronouns.

Vaping became a crutch. Like losing a cell phone, losing a vape pen would set off a mad scramble. “It needs to be right next to my head when I fall asleep at night and then in the morning I have to thrash through the sheets and pick it up and find it,” Kumar recalled.

They got sick often, including catching COVID — and vaping through all of it.

Kumar, now 24, did end up quitting. But many of their generation can’t shake the habit.

“Everyone knows it’s not good for you and everyone wants to stop,” said CU senior Jacob Garza who works to raise awareness about substance use as part of the school’s Health Promotion program.

“But at this point, doing it all these years … it’s just second nature now,” he said. “They’re hooked on it.”

For years, slick marketing by e-cigarette companies, and the allure of sweet, fruity or even candy-like flavors and names, led teens to try vaping. As more high schoolers and even younger kids picked up the behavior, doctors and researchers warned it could lead to widespread addiction, creating a ‘Generation Vape.’

Now, new data about substance use among young adults suggests that many of those former teen vaper haven’t quit.

Vaping use drops among teens, rises among young adults

In Colorado, the share of those aged 18 to 24 who regularly vaped rose by about 61% from 2020 to 2022 – to nearly a quarter of that age group.

“That’s an astounding increase in just two years,” says Dr. Delaney Ruston, a primary care physician and documentary filmmaker.

Nationally, vaping rates for young adults increased from 7.6% in 2018 to 11% in 2021.

Disposable electronic cigarette devices displayed for sale on June 26, 2023. While most flavored disposables are officially banned in the U.S., they continue to be sold.

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Disposable electronic cigarette devices displayed for sale on June 26, 2023. While most flavored disposables are officially banned in the U.S., they continue to be sold.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Research has shown nicotine is highly rewarding to the brains of young people.

“It’s not surprising that many of them start in high school for social reasons, for all sorts of reasons,” says Ruston, whose latest film is Screenagers Under the Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs, and Alcohol in the Digital Age. “And many of them now — we’re seeing this — have continued to college and beyond.”

Meanwhile, vape rates have actually dropped among Colorado high schoolers, said Tiffany Schommer, the tobacco cessation supervisor with Colorado’s state health department.

At one point, before the pandemic, Colorado led the nation in youth vaping, topping 37 states surveyed for use of electronic cigarettes among high school students.

Vaping peaked among minors in Colorado in 2017 with 27% of Colorado youth reporting they had vaped in the past month, according to the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey. But by 2021, the most recent year for which there’s data, that dropped to 16%.

Nationally vaping rates among high schoolers dropped from 28% in 2019 to 12.6% in 2023, according to the Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey.

But for many young people who started vaping at the height of the trend, a habit was set.

“E-cigarette use has increased, particularly…