Our Teens Need to Hear the Truth about Vaping

Recently, at one of my anti-vaping seminars in Florida, a Jewish woman in the audience raised her hand while I was presenting a segment on the medical and psychological issues involved with teenage marijuana use. She asked if she could have the microphone to tell the audience of over 140 about a tragic event that occurred with her 15-year-old son. This woman was attending the seminar to learn more about what had happened to her son at school. I handed her the microphone.

“I am the mother of a 15-year-old boy in middle school,” she began. “My son is bright, curious, and an honors student. He has always been able to resist peer pressure and stay away from drugs. That is, until one day about six weeks ago.

“One early afternoon at school, my son accepted a ‘vape pen’ from one of his friends and decided to take a couple of drags from the device, to be cool like the other kids who had been vaping for months already. My son had never tried cigarettes, vape pens, or marijuana before. Immediately after taking three drags from the vape pen, he began to feel ill and, within 90 seconds, was unconscious on the floor. One of the other boys had the good sense to call for a teacher, as they thought my son could die in the bathroom.

“After the paramedics arrived and stabilized my son, they transported him to the hospital, where he regained consciousness about six hours later. When the police found the device that sent my son to the hospital, they tested the cartridge and found that it contained 90 percent THC ‘vape juice.’ The ER physician told me that we were lucky my son did not die from cardiac arrest or have a stroke from such a high dose of THC. He further explained that he sees this reaction all the time in the pediatric ER with high THC concentrations in teenagers.