Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
From the WA and M Studio on the campus of
Florida A and M University. This is Mary Forum Radio,
a weekly conversation on the education and research of the
medical marijuana being conducted at BAMU.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm Heidi Outway, your host for this conversation on cannabis
virtual form, brought to you by the Medical Marijuana Education
and Research Initiative at Florida and M University. In this conversation,
we're talking about the increase in youth, teens and young
adults vaping marijuana and the concerns around this trend. So
(00:34):
let's talk and learn about this subject with our guests.
Doctor Shamira Roberson is a highly skilled public health administrator
who has served as Deputy Secretary at the Florida Department
of Health. She now leads a consulting practice focused on
solving public health issues in Florida and across the US.
Doctor Roverson is good to have you back on the Forum.
(00:56):
Please tell our guests more about yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Good morning, everybody. I'm happy to be back again to discuss,
you know, contemporary concerns with cannabis, and this time we're
talking about teens vaping and some problems that we're seeing
in the community. We're going to discuss things about high school,
middle school. I've had a long career, worked a lot
in rural areas related to public health, and I'm happy
(01:20):
to be here to discuss this very important topic.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Thank you. Our next guest is Ladarius Scammage, who spent
several years working as a statewide youth advocacy coordinator for
the Students Working Against Tobacco Program also known as SWAT. There,
he led award winning initiatives to help decrease the tobacco use, vaping,
and inhale nicotine use among Florida's youth. Ladarius, we're glad
(01:49):
to have you on this conversation. Tell us more about yourself.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Hotti.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So, I'm a doctoral student at Florida a M University.
I'm currently pursuing my doctor in Public health out of
the Institute of Public Health, FM you. My dissertation topic
is Youth Empowerment. It's been a great passion of minds
working with young people and young adults trying to decrease
in hell nicotine. Now I'm working on a couple of
(02:14):
different projects, such as working gainst opioid uses and battling
the misuse of that in different areas.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Thank You're so glad to have you as a guest
on the show today. To everyone joining us on this
live program, please share post and tag a friend on
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as well. During the form, we want you to send
us your questions in the comment box, and we'll do
our best to have our guests to answer them. We
(02:44):
also want you to tell us what you think about
this form by completing the survey posted in the comments
box on YouTube and Facebook. After the live program, your
name will be entered into a drawing on December fifth,
twenty twenty four to win a one hundred dollars gift
card provided by one of Mary's partners. Now, let's start
(03:04):
this conversation on cannabis. But Darius, I'm going to start
with you. Can you kind of just set the foundation
for this conversation by telling our listeners and viewers what
is vaping?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Certainly so vaping. It's a new term that people are using,
but it's relatively the same action as using an e
cigarette or a different device where you have to press
a button on these new electronic devices, and what they
do is they light up a heating call within and
allows the mixture to look with the E juice or
(03:38):
the E cannabis juice to begin become a miss and
then the person begins to inhale them.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So, who are the primary users of these vaping tools?
And I'll just have to say, I see it all
the time. I see it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
So the primary users, and let's keep this is a
product for a vast majority of different Americans. So the
primary users that studies are beginning to identify are young
adults and teenagers because there's so many different flavors, there's
so many different gadget trees and different looks that appeel
(04:16):
to them. And now we are in a time where
this generation of young people have more currency, have more
money than we had back in my day.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Or your day.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So now they're able to get their hands on these
items pretty quickly.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah. So, doctor Robertson, based on your experience in public health,
what are you seeing. What are some of the trends
that you're seeing when it comes to these young adults
and young youth and youth using these vaping tools.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
So I think it's important for people to know that.
When conducting a survey, the Florida Youth Substance of Youth Survey,
it was reported, and this was actually reported by students,
that five point five percent of middle school and high
school students in Florida reported vaping marijuana. I think that's
establishing that's a lot. And of this sixty four percent
(05:05):
of people who currently vate marijuana, they also vate nicotine,
so that is a lot amongst that five point five percent.
And what I'm seeing is that, you know, it is
an emerging public health concern because a lot of parents,
to community stakeholders, policymakers, they don't truly understand what's happening
(05:26):
because they don't truly understand how to measure it, what
to look for. And a lot of these students, because
it's a lot of times olderless people don't you know,
they're not able to catch it, they don't know that
their children are doing it. They're consilling these vaping products.
But we understand from a public health standpoint the long
(05:46):
term effects of vaping, so they can have future problems
with hard health, brain health, lung health. So it is
important that we work to prevent or even if luteen
has started to vape, that we provide intervention strategies so
that they can stop this. So those are some things
(06:09):
that we're seeing now and it's becoming more and more
prevalent in communities.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I want to know why why, I mean, why are
we seeing more teens and young adults vaping not only
you know, the nicotine products, but cannabis.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
A lot of studies have shown that, you know, nicotine,
the exposure to it is related to nicotine exposure as well.
There's been some concerted efforts and a lot of public
health interventions to prevent teens from vaping nicotine, a lot
of awareness, a lot of public health campaigns, et cetera.
(06:49):
With vaping as an emerging public health topic for marijuana,
there's not a lot of programs, you know, other than
Mary and a few others that have begun to focus on,
you know, bringing light to this that youth that they're
in fact vaping. So there's not a lot of public
health and other programs that are focused on this issue.
(07:10):
I think that's why you see an increase in this,
and then people don't understand the effects. So like with smoking,
they understand that you can develop lung cancer. You have
many years of people doing that, so you know the
things that can happen. But with vaping, this is such
a new thing. People don't understand the long term things
that can happen from it. Based on the cognitive of
(07:31):
development of youth, they don't understand and can't rationalize these
things can have long term effects on you. So I
think we're seeing an increase, you know, doing large part
to education, health education and literacy skills, and health literacy
is very low amongst the entire population, So having people
(07:52):
understand that vaping can be associated with poor outcomes, people
just don't understand that. And also from a public health standpoint, traditionally,
marijuana vaping haven't been included, you know, for any federal funding,
et cetera. So there's not a lot of programs that
are in place outside of Mary that are working to
(08:13):
address this emerging public health issue.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, Ladarius, you spent a lot of time with SWAT,
So tell me what did you hear and learn about
why students serve vaping or young people are vaping.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, you, people are vape for numerous reasons, you know,
outside of the common reason, which is the flavors and whatnot,
the different commercials, the different celebrities, the different actors that
make it seem so casual in these different films, even
the video games and whatnot, or maybe their environment that
(08:48):
they live in where this is a casual behavior. There's
numerous reasons, especially like the when we think about what
happened four years ago we were in COVID nineteen. You know,
young people got separated from their regular ordinary life, so
they found someone's the cope. And because we were so
(09:10):
limited in communication, there were not too many people around
them to teach them the proper ways of cope with stressed,
because this was the stress that everybody had to learn
to deal with. And so when we began to take
a look at the Florida charts and the numbers of
youth vaping and things and whatnot, it increased because of that.
And so you know, many there's many different reasons why
(09:30):
young people vape, and they vape now because they experienced
the sensation from vaping right and they began to say, hey,
I'm having a nick buzz, which is meaning that they
had some type of stimulation, some type of similar to
feeling high from the niggad thing going within their body.
And now you have some people that's chasing a bigger
(09:51):
thrill they feel like by pursuing vaping cannabis, vaping marijuana.
So it kind of led as a gateway. The vaping
led to the gateway of them vaping EA cigarettes and nicotine.
Now they're moving over to marijuana and so and to
add on with my colleague, doctor Shamira Roberson just said,
it not only has you know, detrimental aspects as far
(10:15):
as their physical health, but it also is a state
of mind. So now it hurts their emotional their mental
psychological health because now they're beginning to grow in an addiction.
They don't realize it's an addiction, and they begin to
reward themselves with the stimulant.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah. So Shamira, can you talk a little bit about
the impact on brain health and vaping, because I mean,
we know that the you know, cannabis has the ability
to impact the brains of young people. We've seen studies
around that. So can you talk about that a little
bit please?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yes. And one important point to make is what these
teams are vaping. It's not medical marijuana. These teams are
vapor street drugs. It is unlawed full use of marijuana.
So that's important because people don't know what's in the products.
It is not well understood where these youth are getting
(11:10):
these vaping products. It's not regulated, so we don't understand
if there are other drugs associated with these vaping items.
So THC is very addictive, nicotine is very addictive, we
understand to the brain, these are some highly addictive organic compounds.
So when youth and other people vape marijuana, especially teenagers,
(11:33):
in their brains are in the developmental stage, it is
harder for them to rationalize and have the other skills
to quit. It's harder for them to concentrate in school,
it's harder for them in large part to sleep. So
there are many things that are going on related to
a teen in their brain and vaping. And also, you know,
(11:53):
not well understanding. We don't understand if it's made at
somebody's house with other chemicals they're putting in which could
cause long term adverse bad effects for the brain. So
it is important that teams know if somebody is giving
them this, if it's related to the peer pressure that
you don't know what kind of materials you're putting in
(12:14):
your body. And you don't know what is doing to
your brains because it's not tested. They're not testing these products,
understand what's in it. It is not regulated what's going
in their body. And there are no studies that show
the long term, long term effects of vaping marijuana. So
this is super important that you're pretty much just in
(12:35):
a position where you're just being elabor at, you're just
being tested. You don't know what you're taking, and children
often don't have the ability to understand this and can
lead to mental health effects as well with a brain.
A lot of youth who report vaping nigotine as well
as vaping marijuana, they also report having mental health concerns,
(12:59):
having mental health diagnosis, anxiety, depression, and it has been
shown that these products can make these symptoms worse and
can also make them dependent upon other drugs and other substances.
So once you start vaping marijuana and these other things,
it can lead these you to other things. And for example,
(13:22):
if somebody has laces with other street drugs, they could
become addicted to other drugs with them thinking that hey,
I'm only vaping marijuana, but there are other drugs like
opioids and other things that people are mixing in these
compounds and it could lead to some serious addictions long term.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Well, I have two follow up questions to what you
just said. So the first one is you reference the
word lab rat. And we know that Ladarius has done
a lot of award winning campaigns and one of them
is don't be a lab rat. So let's segue into that, Ladarius,
where you can share a little about your work on
(14:01):
educating young youth about vaping. Talk about that, and then
I want to follow up on a question about this
is illegal and where are they getting these devices from
to vape marijuana or nicotine in general. So let's start
with the labratt campaign if you can provide us an
(14:22):
overview of that, and then we'll segue into how are
young people getting these devices when it's illegal?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Right? So, thank you so much, Hotti. So the Nonlabrat
campaign was developed at the Florida Department of Health through
the Bureau Tobac Fory Florida. I was very instrumental in
helping our youth develop that our statewide youth advocates and
working along our media vendor at the time, and we
launched that campaign back and I believe this summer of
(14:50):
twenty eighteen, and it was our first youth e cigarette
campaign for years, the youth, the coordinates, the different people,
the boots on the ground wanted to talk about vaping
because if we thought about it, vaping boomed in twenty eleven.
Now we're coming out with a campaign in twenty eighteen,
so it's a long awaited discussion and we you know,
(15:13):
we promoted as possible as a statewide leader in that position.
I made sure that our community advocates had different health messages, slogans.
I tried to come out with as many promotional items
as much as possible, helped them plan and strategically think
about the different community events and how they will reach
different people and stakeholders on the ground. And one of
(15:34):
the biggest joys that I experienced that at the end
of the year, I think it was May twenty nineteen,
we had promoted that actual, no elaborate campaign on World
No Tobacco Day and we received the attention of the
World Health Organization and they gave us a World Health
Organization Award that day. We all so that's international attention
(15:58):
right there. We also received that no, Yes, it was wonderful.
You should have seen the youth. When we shared that
with them, they were jumping around so happy. It led
to them being able to hop on a global webinar
with different youth from our land, Japan, India, and we're
there having conversations with these young people about battling against
vaping and tobacco products. It led us having discussions with
(16:21):
the Truth Initiative and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids,
who everybody you know, they loved our campaign and they
kind of took some messages from it and repurposed it
for their own work. But we were just so excited
with what we were able to do there.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, So for everyone who is following us on social media,
we actually added links to that campaign so that you
all can see the content and the information that was shared.
So thank you for sharing that. And I mentioned earlier
that you know, young people are having access to this
and it's in legal So where are they getting these
(16:56):
vaping tools to vape? Where are they getting them? Because
they can't just I mean, they can't just walk into
a store, right.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
No, from friends, from family members, from people dealers that
are making these things and trying to get children hooked
on them, from you know, other people like that. They
may be taking devices that are traditionally you know, used
to vate nicotine and putting other products in them. Right,
(17:24):
So they are getting these devices from different places, but
oftentimes these devices are being given to youth in schools,
after school events. So it is important to talk to
your youth, to talk to community leaders, to talk to
faith based organizations, to let them know that this is
(17:44):
a problem. It can be you know, right in the
room with you and you not know it. It could
look like a USB drive, it can look like a cup.
They could be doing this in their room. You would
never smell it, wouldn't know about it. They could be
doing this at school, and it's so easy to hide.
So it is important to bring this awareness and to
(18:05):
talk to youth about saying no, and to talk to
youth about getting help. Those are the things that's not
well defined. We don't have a lot of campaigns that's
focused on this, so it's important that we address this
issue because youth they're continuously coming in to contact with
people that are trying to get them to fait. It's
(18:26):
seeing as being cooled in a lot of settings. A
lot of peer pressure at this age and youth, especially
teens are susceptible to a lot of peer pressure. So
it is important that we bring, you know, like to
this situation and we come up with ways to help families,
to help children, you know, not become addicted to marijuana
and later lead to other gateway drugs.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Ladarius, you want.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
To add to that, Doctor Robinson did a wonderful job.
It's hard to add on to that. What I also
say is that, you know, regulation is very important, and
I think on the Bureo Toebgraphy Florida does a very
good job of going into different convenience stores doing pos
checking to make sure that young people are not purchasing
these products from these stores, or these products are not
(19:13):
in the lanes where young people can just grab them
and walk out the store. I know that when I
was in the position back at the Bureau Tobaccy Florida,
that was quite frequently a problem. There were some stores
that actually sold some of these vaping products to young people,
and you know, and that's why it became such a
big deal about regulation and making sure that that's carried
(19:34):
out as well. And I also want to just encourage
that this is the proper time to bring back those
assemblies those informationals, those trainings where you ask people from
the Florida Department of Health or professionals that might be
in this avenue to come out and speak to young
people about having informed decision making help them make them
those informed decisions. Because I know that we're currently working
(19:57):
on different where I'm at now, we're currently working on
different campaigns to help youth make informed decisions, like different
life skills of refusal skills and whatnot. And if we
don't have the information in front of these young people
where they all can receive it, it's very easier for
the other population to get to them in the past.
One thing I also want to add is that you know,
(20:17):
in some of these rural communities, I think in the past,
some of these big vaping or these tobacco companies or
these other companies that made these products, they used to
have parties in these different rural communities and they would
just hand out products to whoever they came across. So
these are different things that we all need to be
aware of because I know it's easy for us to say,
(20:37):
how did this happen, where did this happen, whatnot, But
it happens in our everyday life right in front of
us and where if we're not paying attention, that's how
the enemy gets by.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I would like to add that we're doing a pilot program.
Actually we started in Madison County using youth. So we
are working with a community based organization by the name
Boys a King and this is a group that has
more than fifty young men teenagers to be exact, where
we started with a pilot of training youth ambassadors at
(21:10):
this community based organization to just learn about marijuana and
topics such as vaping. And we taught them different leadership
skills so that they can go out and talk to
other community members, their parents, and other youth about things
like vaping marijuana. What we found is they liked to
do this through situational skits where they could teach their
(21:32):
peers how to say no. We started by really teaching
them about medical marijuana, lawful use, what the Office of
Medical Marijuana Use is, what's legal, marijuana was not legal.
We taught them about the effects of marijuana on the brain.
We talked them about a lot of different things which
have empowered them. And now we're in the phase of
(21:53):
that youth project where they're going out and they're going
to be training other youth, they're going to be training
other family members, going to serve as voices of the community,
because nothing for a community without a community. You know,
these youth that are taking part in these leadership skills
to spread the message about unlawful use of marijuana, what
medical marijuana is and a topic that's emerging like teens vaping.
(22:17):
Unlawful use is important and they're creating different ways that
a curriculum have been created to train youth, but advisement
of youth, advising this curriculum is what we've been working
on and we are excited to continue to partner in
different communities across the state of Florida. We've partnered with
Jacksonville Boys and Girls Club, Madison Boys and Girls Club
(22:40):
is looking at bringing this information in. Additional products being
developed so that we are equipped with the skills and
tools necessary so that children aren't addicted to things like
you know, vapor in marijuana.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, and I think peer to peer engagement always works
and I want to applaud you for doing that, Ladarius.
When we were prepping for the conversation, you mentioned that
in some instances people are actually making vapes in their
homes and selling them. Can you please talk about that?
(23:16):
My jaw dropped if you remember. So, I definitely want
to make sure that our viewers and listeners are aware
of this.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
There's a lot to be aware of when we're talking
about these products. When we're talking about vaping products and
we're talking about you know, I know, people get excited
like it's gadgetry. You know, we all like to be
hip to the new items that are out there. We
never want to be the person last in line and whatnot.
But there's some things that we need to be very
conscious of. You know, when vapor products first came onto
(23:45):
the scene, it was revealed that some people were just
making these mixtures anywhere. They were making them in their bathtubs,
they were making them in their kitchen sinks, and not
to say, what is the cleanliness of these differ from places,
you know, But also they weren't as regulated as their
game now and I don't believe they're still as heavily
(24:08):
regulated right now, because honestly, some of these stores should
not be opened that sell these different CBDs, these vaping products,
these marijuana products and whatnot. And the FDA is cracking down,
but The thing that they start to notice is when
people begin to go in and do the testing of
the products. Some products were mislabeled. Some products said five
(24:29):
percent nicotine or five percent thac, but then when they
ran the test it was actually eight percent. Some people
said eight percent, it was actually twelve percent. It was
some people said twelve percent, it was actually ten percent.
And you know, that just goes to show you that
if without regulation, people are selling you anything. And then
there's been cases where some people have lost their jobs
(24:52):
because they thought that they were just getting some simple
product right that just was what it was on the label.
Then when they came to find out when they took
a lab test, a drug test, there are more other
substances within it. So you run the risk of kind
of Russian roulette when you buy these products. You don't
know whether it's been mixed with bliss, mixed with ecstasy,
(25:14):
made in the same area with ecstasy. You know, some
companies tell you like, hey, this was made in the
same building of You do not see that on some
of these labels, and you don't know what you're actually
putting within your body. And then now all of a
sudden you're having this bad reaction. You don't know specifically
what's going wrong or what's going on, and now you're
in a case where hey, it's just best to stay
(25:37):
away if you don't understand everything that's going on.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, well, we kind of like laid out you know
what is vaping? What you know, how does it impact
young people? And then you know what are the consequences
of using it? So now I want to kind of
shift and talk about for family members, caregivers, teachers, church members,
who who are engaged with are you than young adults?
(26:01):
What should they be looking for to kind of determine
if you know that you that young person that they
engage with maybe using this. Can you give us some
what they should be looking for? And then let's segue
into how do they help them if they find out
they are using they are vaping?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Right, I've been working with you for probably over twelve
years now. Behaviors will change. Whenever they get a new
video game. Let's say they get a new PS five.
You will see them around walking around the house less, right,
They'll be glued to that PS five. So now when
it comes in terms of vaping products or these other
(26:40):
products that we're talking about, you'll notice mood swings, certain smells.
Why are you always disappearing? You know, look at their
facial expressions, skin and start to look different. Lips might
start looking at different. Eyes might start looking different. Sleep
path might change, whatnot. Friend groups might change whatnot. How
(27:04):
they respond to normal situations that you've had with them previously,
they might respond a little bit differently. So these are
different things you have to look for. One thing that
I'm blessed with is I had a mother that stayed
on top of me, so I couldn't had nothing for
my mother. She used to take my car and drive
it around and tell me I need to clean it
(27:25):
out or whatnot. You know, she used to come in
my room and be nosy. And so now you know,
it's time to get back to that and staying in
formed and you know, reading up on information and just
making sure that you know, we continue to remain in
community as parents like you know, hey, have you noticed
anything different, you know, how the children doing connecting Because
(27:48):
it's those same type of relationships that have helped us
in the past and they can help us right now.
Make sure that our young people get where they need
to be.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
At Doctor Robertson, I agree, And I think when you're
you're looking. So my first career I was a middle
school teacher, so I think having those personal relationships. Of
course you're teaching about work, but understanding children listening when
they're saying, you know, I'm down, I'm sad, like kids
will often tell you how they feel. Making sure that
(28:18):
you are watchful around kids that are like trying to
be you know, discreet with their books back. Don't look
in here. You know, kids will often if they have
something that they shouldn't have when you come around, even
if you're not looking in that item, that pencil case,
they'll get really protective, right, They'll get really protective of
their phones. They'll have a lot of past codes on
(28:39):
their phones. They won't want you like, you know, my
colleague Ladarius said, they don't want you to go in
their rooms, right, and just pay attention to items that,
you know, school items that don't look like the normal
items that you purchase. So if there are USB looking
like drives and kids don't use that a lot anymore.
They have you know, the storage on teens, etc. So
(28:59):
that they're walking around and they have a lot of
USB drives, that's something that a vakee device could look
like right if they wear and a lot of youth do.
They wear a lot of hoodies. So there are devices
that go around your neck kind of hide like it's
a key chain, and kids have that. So I think
men intentionally inquisitive about what's going on with them when
(29:21):
they walk through the door. Hey, you know, let me
help you out. Let mom, let me help you clean
your book bag. Let's reset, you know, let's take everything
out and let's reorganize this Thanksgiving break coming up. Let's
go ahead and hit a reset on school supplies and
let me help you. I just want to be a part.
We can talk while we do it, so, you know,
making sure that they know you're intentionally going through their things.
(29:42):
We check with your teacher, you know, how are you doing?
Is everything okay? Like even if a child is a
straight A student, That's what a lot of people think, Oh,
if they make good grades, this couldn't happen to them.
That's not necessarily true. Kids can make good grades and
they can still be addicted to substances. They could still
be hiding things. So it's important to be vigilant. But
(30:03):
it's also important to know that even if you find this.
Even if you are a youth leader and you find
out that children are vaping, you know, talking to them
to understand that they're still a hope for you. This
is not the end of life. This doesn't mean that
you're a bad person. But our response will sometimes dictate
if you stop this or if they continue what could
(30:25):
be a lifelong habit. Right, So being understanding to say,
you're not the only child, You're not alone in this.
There are ways that we can help you. Talking to
your pediatrician their healthcare provider to say, you know, I
found that you know, my child is vaping marijuana. I
don't know what's in this. I want to work with
(30:46):
you to make sure that my child hasn't come in
contact with other types of drugs that they may be
addicted to that may are a prescription. Getting that child
and a doctor to get their blood work done so
that they can actually help the child is important and
that might you know, lead to a referral to mental
health counseling, other things that help a child. And say,
(31:08):
for example, your child don't have a pediatrician, there are
community health centers that you can get help with your
children if they're vaping, right, there are strategies that you
can use to help talk to other youth, and I
think encouraging people to tell their story. So when youth
have been called and have been found in situations where
they're vaping, using other youth to say, hey, you know
(31:32):
this was once me, you can stop. You can do this,
you know, instead of vaping, Try working out instead of vaping,
try cooking instead of you know, using this as a
mental health counselor. There are youth texting lines, there are
virtual free options for mental health for kids. Bringing all
of these resources to you to let them know that hey,
(31:53):
you know, the world is here for you. There is
a better option. You don't have to risk your life.
Right back to the COVID nineteen pandemic, there was something
that was called vaping. People often forgot and it's vaping
associated pulmonary illnesses. And this is where you know, people
including teens, ended up in the hospital and some actually
(32:15):
you know sally to say that some actually died from
vaping products. What was in it? So this led to
something that was called popcorn lung et cetera, and a
lot of ended up they ended up dead based on
an unknown vaping product with all types of chemicals. And
you know, this can be any youth at any point
(32:37):
in time in Florida if they vape a product that
somebody make in their house that have a harmful chemical
in it and they passed out. You know, more than
a hundred of these devices, we could be looking at
children actually dying from this. So this is an important issue,
a very important issue.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Yeah. Yeah, I want to bring up a graphic that
Ladarius gave us so that our viewers can see how
people are hiding their vaping devices. So Ladaris, you want
to walk us through what we're looking at here.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
So.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
One of the things that I began to witness when
I was at the Florida Department Health at the Bureau
Tobacco Fleet, Florida, I think it was Melusia County, the
young people kept getting very slick about how to these
products riding plain site, you know, and it was not
really the young people, it was really the companies.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
They kept advertising these products so much that the local
boots on the ground, the local coordinators, local tobacco program
kept providing this information to the state office, and we
began to start to see like they're making vaping products
that looked like water bottles. Take a look at the
image in the middle, look exactly like water bottles. They're
making vaping hoodies now, they're making vaping products that look
(33:57):
exactly like their normal everyday items. So I think when
we're doing the technical preparation for this conversation, you had
said something about, well, if teacher, you know a student
is vaping in the classroom, women, teacher be able to
easily detect that. And I'm responded back to you, and
I told you, like, no, it's not as easy anymore,
because if I have that water bottle, as soon as
(34:18):
you turn your back and I vape, you might be
able to smell the older, but you don't know where
it's coming from because everybody has a water bottle. If
I have on a hoodie, especially right now, we're looking
at sixty to forty degree weather, fifty degree weather right now,
and you turn around, you don't know who's vaping because
we all have on hoodies. So it's not just the
product we have to be scared of now, it's the
(34:39):
product designed the disguises that they're doing right now. So,
like you know, it's very important that teachers are informed
that these products being out there on the market and parents, superintendents,
school boards and whatnot. And you know, we all need
to get this type of training where we can see
this information and know it ahead of time.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, as well, so you know, for example, a lot
of youth and schools they really trust school nurses, so
they trust them. They tell them a lot about their health,
and they tell them a lot about habits, and you know,
making sure school nurses are trained, making sure guidance counselors, teachers, assistants, principles,
(35:19):
after school programs. Right. Children they use a lot of
products that they shouldn't when they're all in a big game.
So for example, if they're in hallways and there's a
lot of people in somebody vapor, there's vapor that come up,
people won't be able to easily identify who did it. Right,
when kids are at games after school basketball games, football
(35:39):
games where they may not be as many adults or supervision,
they do these types of activities right when they're walking
home from school, etc. This is an opportunity. So really
being open and transparent and teaching people where to look
for these types of behaviors is very important. And making
sure you know that if they smell it, to say
(36:01):
something like if they smell different odors, fruity flavors, for example,
and they don't know where it's coming from. It's not
that anybody spreading aerosol that smell like a cherry or
smell like orange. These people are very creative fruit loops.
They create a lot of products that are very children specific,
Like it is very intentional for people to pick flavors
(36:23):
and kinds that kids might like, colors that kids like,
so that they're more drawn to things like vaping marijuana.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
If I may hop in, I'm glad doctor Roberson said aerosol,
because what we have to remember is this is not
water that they're vaping. This is an aerosol essentially, because
it's a it's a mixture, it's a cocktail that different
chemicals involved. The one chemical that doctor Robinson was talking
about earlier, they led to that that wheezing, that popcorn lung,
(36:56):
it's properlen glyc hall. So people need take a look
at these different chemicals on the back. Don't just take
a look at the level of GAC, the level of
nicotine that's just a sugar to a soda. There's other
chemicals that are involved that create the soda that you're ingested.
So in this in this case, there's different things involved
that's creating the product that are unhealthy to our bodies
(37:19):
and unhealthy to our lungs, and these young people need
to know that.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah, we actually got a question and I think we
answered it from a Melissa on who's watching us on YouTube,
and I believe we answer her question. But I want
to put this up where she said, how can we
successfully teach adolescents about cannabis dangers and benefits? So I
want to have you all, if you all want to
kind of circle back on anything that you said earlier,
just to answer her specifically, and then we're going to
(37:45):
wrap up with you all giving your closing comments on
this really engaging conversation in this particular topic. So Ladarius,
you want to kind of provide any kind of context
for Melissa.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Yes, I I'll take a step at it. First. We
have to make sure that when we educate these young people,
we have to reach them in a place where a
lot of them are, so it might have to be
schools or community events, you know. And the biggest thing
that I want to say is we have to distinguish
the difference between cannabis and these vapor products, and then
(38:19):
let's talk about the different potential dangers of both and
that there is potential benefits what they are. So I'm
not one to discuss that, but you know, we have
to make sure that we follow these different parameters because
whenever we're introducing the idea to young people, are discussing
the idea with young people, we don't want to give
them the wrong impression that we're giving them permission to
(38:41):
engage in certain behaviors and activities.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, thank you for that. That was really well said
doctor Robertson. Can you give us some closing thoughts on
what our listeners and viewers need to know, like final
thoughts on this topic teens youth vaping in marijuana.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
I just think it's important for us to know that
this is an ever changing topic and we have to
stay vigilant and watching the products so that we can
provide prevention messages.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Okay, and Ladarius, any closing thoughts that you want to share? Right?
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I had a professor's name is doctor Axelrad. He used
to tell me, Ladarius, stay curious, so I know we
can always say stay informed. You know that might not
be enough. Stay curious. If we stay curious, will become
as informed as possible and learn the information that we
need to learn. Continue to just try to learn the information,
(39:37):
connect with other people and everything will fall in line.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Yeah. Wise words well, Doctor Roberson and Ladarius, thank you
for being guests on this Conversations on Cannabis Virtual form,
brought to you by the Medical Marijuana Education and Research
Initiative at Florida and M University. Thank you to everyone
watching this program. Tell us what you think about this
form by completing the survey posted in the comment boxes
on YouTube and Facebook after this live program. If you
(40:04):
complete the survey, your name will be entered into a
drawing on December fifth, twenty twenty four, to win a
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We also want to encourage you to go to the
Florida Department of Health Office of Medical Marijuana Use website
to learn how to obtain a legal medical marijuana cart
in the state of Florida. We also encourage you to
(40:25):
go to Florida and M University's Merry website to learn
more about this initiative. It's educational programs and additional information
about medical and illegal cannabis use in the state of Florida.
Thanks everyone. The views and opinions of our invited guests
are not necessarily the views and opinions of Florida Agricultural
(40:47):
and Mechanical University or the Medical Marijuana Education and Research
Initiative