If you haven't heard... the High school has a vaping problem according to a student survey. This survey was presented to the School Committee last week and those of us who live in district 4 got a letter from Adam Freuderg. It was also sent out from Patch.
https://patch.com/massachusetts/framingham/vaping-pervasive-framingham-hs-students-say?utm_term=article-slot-1&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
Somewhere along the line, like many issue's, the truth is somewhat left out. For instance, Patch reports that the majority of High School students find students vaping in the bathrooms. The reality is only 408 students took the voluntary survey out of 2177 total student population at the HS. The survey reports 39.5% or 161 students said yes to the question on vaping in bathrooms. 170 answered sometimes and 77 students said never. In another question: Do you avoid bathrooms to avoid seeing students vaping?, 129 students or 31.6% answered yes, a whopping 181 answered no and 98 answered sometimes. In another question students were asked if the have been offered a vaping pen: 144 or 35.4 % answered yes, 263 or 64.6% said no. Surprisingly so, Keefe Tech was not a part of the survey.
Mr. Freudberg is jumping on vaping like he did and continues to try to stop the pot shops from coming to Town. Today, the Baker administration is proposing increases taxes on vaping products to slow down or stop teenagers from vaping. This legal product is beneficial to those who want to quit cigarettes and is only sold to people over 21 and is also a way from sick people who don't or can't smoke cannabis to effectively get their medication.
Kids should not be smoking butts, pot or anything else in the bathrooms and the only way we could stop it completely is to have live bathroom monitors. But at the end of the day, are kids over dosing on nicotine? are they robbing the elderly to get a vap cartridge? Do they smuggle them into school in laces where the sun doesn't shine?
So the question for today is... is vaping really a problem in our school bathrooms?
Vaping & Substance Use
Prevention Letter
Disclaimer: this is my own effort to do something as someone
concerned about vaping. This is not a
formal School Committee action.
Letter to be sent after the 2/6
School Committee Meeting where the Student Advisory Council will discuss vaping
February 7,
2019
Dr. Scott
Gottlieb Attorney
General Maura Healey
Commissioner Commonwealth
of MA
Food and
Drug Administration
Mayor Yvonne
M. Spicer Superintendent
of Schools Dr. Robert Tremblay
City of
Framingham City
of Framingham
Dear Dr.
Gottlieb, Attorney General Healey, Mayor Spicer, and Dr. Tremblay,
The vaping
crisis is a major national crisis and is one that I believe can only be
addressed with complete coordination and a whole of government approach across
the federal, state, and local governments.
Therefore, I am writing to you all together to express my personal views
on this important topic as each of you have the individual capacity to act in
multiple different ways in your respective leadership roles to support what I
know is a mutual goal - to make impactful change to keep vaping devices away
from anyone under 21.
This week at
a meeting of the City of Framingham’s School Committee our students presented
about vaping in their high school.[1] Their survey reported that:
● 39.5% of students often found and
41.7% sometimes found students vaping in the bathroom
● 35.4% of students have been offered
a vaping pen
● 31.6% of students replied yes that
they avoid the bathrooms to avoid seeing students vaping, and 24% replied
sometimes to the same question. 55.6% of
Framingham High School students often or sometimes avoid the bathroom at their
school. These statistics are a major concern to me.
This
supports recent national data reflecting the astronomical trends. According to the Center for Disease Control
(CDC) last November there has been a 78 percent
increase in vaping
by high school students, with 3.6 million high school and middle school
students now using e-cigarettes.
● Among high school students, current
e-cigarette use increased from 1.5% (220,000 students) in 2011 to 20.8% (3.05
million students) in 2018.
● Among middle school students,
current e-cigarette use increased from 0.6% in 2011 (60,000 students) to 4.9%
(570,000 students) in 2018.[2]
Additionally
according to the Surgeon General Warning, “teen vaping is the fastest-growing
youth abuse epidemic on recent record.”[3] And a recent National Youth Tobacco Survey
showed that more than 20 percent of high school students admitted to using an
electronic cigarette within the last 30 days – up more than 77 percent since
2017.[4] Another recent study published in the New
England Journal of Medicine also shows that e-cigarettes do not help the vast
majority of participants to recover from nicotine addiction. Data shows that it merely moves the addiction
from cigarettes to e-cigarettes.[5]
The trends
are one thing. The physical and mental
health effects of vaping are another as, “the Surgeon General has concluded
that e-cigarette use among youths and young adults is of public health concern;
exposure to nicotine during adolescence can cause addiction and can harm the
developing adolescent brain.”[6] There is also no solution to the addiction of
minors. According to Dr. Susanne Tanski
from the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium, “There is
unfortunately virtually no data on how to treat an adolescent with e-cigarette
dependence. As things currently stand,
there is not a single randomized controlled trial that has tested strategies to
help teens quit e-cigarettes, and there is a significant need for research in
this area. We simply do not know yet if
our traditional approach to cigarette cessation will apply to adolescent vaping
cessation.”[7]
In addition,
when adolescents attempt to quit vaping, many of them are hampered by
withdrawal
symptoms
which include anxiety and difficulty concentrating. Student anxiety is such a concern in
Framingham, that last year the city formed a multi-agency Framingham Youth
Development Coalition, which is administered by our Board of Health.
So what can
government do to educate and ultimately do all we can to protect our youth,
while also balancing the free market rights of industry? Here are my ideas for the federal, state, and
local levels.
Federal
Thank you
Dr. Gottlieb for calling out the e-cigarette industry for not doing enough to
restrict sales and marketing to minors.
I agree with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Heart
Association and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. It
is now time for the FDA to require e-cigarettes to be regulated like regular
cigarettes. While this process is
underway, I encourage the FDA to immediately take all non-FDA approved
e-cigarettes off the market in stores as well as online. Further delay would be detrimental to the
health of our nation’s children. Can you
please take steps to make this happen?
History will look back at that decision as a transformational one which
will change lives for the better.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
For the Attorney General’s Office:
● I encourage the Attorney General’s
Office to strengthen existing regulations on age limit requirements by adding
and enforcing two factor age validation for all online sales of vaping products
and paraphernalia.[8] Additionally, I encourage the office to look
into banning online sales of all vaping products, including accessories and
equipment - similar to how there is an existing prohibition on online/mail
orders of alcohol.
City of Framingham
For the Mayor’s Office:
● There are direct ties to vaping and
adult-use marijuana. Therefore, as the
legality of adult-use marijuana is so new in Massachusetts, I encourage the
Mayor to start small and only authorize 1-3 Host Community Agreements. This will allow us to see how implementation
works and evaluate all impacts on our community, including the accessibility of
products to those under 21 years of age.
● In each Host Community Agreement I
support language requiring all individual vaping canisters to be labeled. It is my understanding that a package of
multiple canisters is required to be labeled, but the individual ones are
not. I would suggest that such
individual canisters be produced with a distinctive color in addition to the
labeling, so that parents and school officials can detect marijuana use
easier. Let’s require an extra layer of
labeling so it is clearly visible to all stakeholders when canisters have
marijuana in them.
● Language matters. Locally I recommend we change the way we
label and speak about marijuana outlets in Framingham. Instead of using the term “recreational
marijuana”, let us all commit to call it “Adult-use marijuana store” versus
“Recreational Marijuana Store”.
● Dedicate a portion of the community
impact fee to substance use prevention education efforts, an effort which can
be managed together through a partnership between the Board of Health and
Framingham Public Schools.
● Ensure that the city’s credit rating
will not be negatively impacted due to the federal versus state policy
differences around adult-use marijuana stores.
For the Board of Health:
● Examine the City of Somerville model
to restrict sales of electronic nicotine delivery systems (e-cigarettes) and
menthol cigarettes to 21+ adult-only tobacco retail stores. Framingham currently allows retail locations
to sell these products. Also restricts
flavored products from being sold in retail locations and solely allowed in
adult-only locations.
● Also examine new and proposed
regulations in Needham, Malden, Ashland, Winchester and other communities to
find the best fit for Framingham.
● Promote and encourage wide local
distribution of the Cannabis Control Commission’s new Education Guide on vaping
and adult-use marijuana products coming out in 2019.
For the Superintendent:
● Research the feasibility of
installing vaping detectors at Framingham High School and the three middle
schools. Determine placement and costs
for these detectors, and develop policies around discipline and supports for
students with nicotine addiction.
● Utilize substance use prevention
resources in our school's curriculum, and begin teaching our students about
this topic consistently across the district earlier than 5th grade.
● Create The 84 Chapter at Framingham
High School (a statewide movement of youth educating peers and community
members about the influence of the tobacco and vaping industries) and apply to
their grant opportunities.
● Partner with regional networks and
non-profits to ramp up education efforts for parents, guardians, students,
educators, and the community.
○ Framingham FORCE and other local
non-profits
○ Interfaith Community
○ Team up with the Board of Health to
present on the dangers of substance use including vaping, resources for
families, and more at all annual “step up orientations” (elementary student
transition events to prepare for middle schools, and middle school transition
events for high school
Thank you
all for your attention and consideration.
Only through a whole of government approach can we balance the free
market and rights of those 21 and older, with common sense regulation to ensure
our students and youth are protected to the best of our ability.
Sincerely,
