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 VMUTI.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi. I'm Heidi Otway, your host for this conversations 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 growing use of vapes
by school children and youth across Florida and what's being
(00:33):
done to address this hidden public health crisis. So let's
talk and learn about this subject with our guests. Baddy
Beetros is the CEO of Swaptech, where he's developed innovative
field test kits to securely detect narcotics and vapes. His
kits are used by public and private organizations across the US,
(00:54):
including law enforcement, government agencies, and the aviation industry, as
well as in classrooms and homes or safe field testing
has never been possible before. Our other guest is doctor
Michael West Junior. He's a behavioral specialist who supports K
through twelve students with evidence based behavioral interventions and holistic
(01:17):
student development initiatives. His work centers on helping students successfully
reintegrate into the classroom by equipping them with social emotional
competencies and positive behavioral strategies. And rounding out our panel
is Andy Donado, who currently serves as vice president of
The Grateful Veteran, where he leads strategic initiatives that empowered
(01:41):
veterans and their transition to civilian life. He is joining
the show to share his experience as a parent whose
child was accused of possessing a vape at school. He'll
share his personal insights on the challenges families face when
dealing with youth behavioral concerns. To everyone watching, please share
(02:02):
the link to this form on your social media channels
so others can learn about this topic. We also want
you to tell us what you think about this form
by completing the survey that will be posted on Mary's
social media pages. Your name will be entered into a
drawing in March twenty twenty six to win a one
hundred dollars gift card provided by one of Mary's partners. Now,
(02:25):
let's start this conversation on cannabis. Bobby, I'm going to
start with you so that you can tell our viewers
and listeners what vaping is and why it's increased significantly
over the last few years.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, vaping is the active it's really when you inhale
an aerosol that's produced by burning a liquid or an oil,
and there share these devices that are called vape pens
that contain these atomizers but basically take that liquid and
mocinerate it and generate an aerosol that you can inhale.
(03:03):
So unlike smoking burning back, you're inhaling these heated liquids.
And lots of these things contain chemicals, nicotine, very strong
amounts of nicotine, flavorings, and other things that are just
unknown what the long term effects are on the human body,
(03:25):
things like the g li drawls and the flavors and
sometimes heavy metals and these maples. Yeah, concerning ones in
my opinion nowadays are really the ones that contain cannabis.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And cannabis related products.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, because there's regular marijuana that everyone's heard about, but
now there's synthetic cannabis products, which are things that are
called Delta eight and Delta ten, which are also very psychoactive.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Haven't been studied that much.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Anergy are created in the lab, and so there's not
a lot of history on these other cannabis variantsesthetic ones,
but there is a lot known about about the danger
and entling.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Bate's most in Canada.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, when these devices first came out, they looked like
and we're called e cigarettes. But now they are very
discreet and they look like you know, everyday products. Can
you tell us about how they've evolved over the years,
and maybe you can show us what discrete and hard
detect vaate pins look like nowadays.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Sure, so, Yeah, it's been a real evolution since it
all started. Back when people were first selling these e cigarettes,
there was a company called Jewel which was marketing these
things to kids with special flavorings and colors, and that
has now kind of evolved into a whole industry that
makes these kinds of date pen devices. And some of
(04:56):
them are disposable. Now there's no reefilling of the cartridges.
They do have those, but these become even more difficult.
Someone can just throw them away and worry about it.
Since then, the industry has started to make everyday objects
that look like and function like everyday objects, but are
(05:18):
actually vate pins. Like here's a regular pin that we'll
write on paper. But if you pop this off and
unscrew this, you can smoke.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
It like a vape pin.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Here's Bob and again this is another product that you
can just pop off the end and insert the cartridge
and you're now smoking a VP pin. And who would
ever know that that's what this device is. So it's
becoming even harder and harder to detect the vate pins
by their appearance. But even still, it's harder to know
(05:50):
the difference of what's inside those things. Is it really
hard drugs, is it marijuana? Or is it just an
eat cigarette that's got a ton of nickedine. I mean,
these are all kinds of questions that you need to
worry about because nowadays almost all the kids are using
these are very high percentage.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, well, speaking of a percentage in Florida, about six
point three percent of middle school or say they're currently vaping.
So I want to go to doctor West and what
are you and your piercing when it comes to youth
vaping in schools.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
To add a caveat to mister Beachos, some of the
challenges with our experience are the novelty and accessibility of
those items. The novelty is probably the biggest problem that
we have. Things are now very disguisable, so it's really
hard for staff to really understand what we're dealing with.
So we really need to take a step back and
educate ourselves because fifteen to twenty years ago, smoking on
(06:42):
canvas looked like a student using cigarettes.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Today, mister Beacho's just showed us a key fob.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Where student is able to walk around and inconspicuously use
vaping and we don't even know it. So we have
to start at the education and once we educate our staff, parents, personnel,
and everybody around, then we're better to aible address the issue.
So doing these talks and having these conversations like this
allow for us to see how we bigorous those items are.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
I didn't even know that you could use the key file.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That looks like something I could put on my keychain
right now and nobody would know that I had a
vate And that's concerning. That's very alarming because for a
teacher who has twenty to thirty students, as a principal
who has two, three, four thousand, even sometimes more than
that depending on the school, to look over, it's really
hard for you to pinpoint and say, hey, this student's
(07:31):
walking around with a keychain or a pin or a
highlighter and that's a date and you don't even know it. So,
like I said, going back to the education of all
person your parents as well as or we'll be able
to start our groundwork.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, Bobby, can you share the image that you have
of some devices that have been confiscated in schools?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Sure, there you go. So this is a picture from.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
One of our high school customers in Arkansas when we
first came on board, and this picture represents what they
were finding on the student body at school with every month.
So this is a month's worth of confiscations for this
particular high school. And if you look closely, oops, if
you look closely at this stuff, you'll see it's primarily baypins.
(08:18):
But there are definitely pills and powders over here on
the left, got some gummies. You've got lots of pipes
and bonds in the back there and other devices, but
again it's primarily baypens. And what we find when we
go into schools that have these kinds of problems, which
is very widespread.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
It's not just in states that have legalized marijuana.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
It's now made its available as beer and cigarettes for kids.
But about half of this stuff is got drugs in it,
most of the cannabis or some cannabis variant, but about
half of that. And so that's a really important thing
to know when you look at you know, at how
many kids.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Are doing this. I mean this is just one high school.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, and the fact that they continue to collect these
things every month means that when you collect them, they're.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Just bringing a new one.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
You know, there's a big problem to get access.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
But well, this is how bad the problem is.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah. Well, I want to go to Andy now so
he can kind of share the story of what he
experienced with his son who was caught with a vague
device in his school. Andy, can you share your story
with us please?
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Yeah, thank you for having me here. So my son
was a freshman in high school. He had just started
his high school career, per se, and weeks into it,
I get a call like around one o'clock in the
afternoon saying that there was some issues in the bathroom
and something serious happened. They didn't really explain to me
(09:48):
over the phone. So I left my job and I
went straight to the school, and that's when I found
out that it was my son and a group of
other students in the bathroom. They were passing a vape
around and to be honest, somehow another they determined that
(10:08):
it was.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
THC.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
And this is early on. This was around twenty sixteen,
twenty seventeen, right after the HEMP got introduced into the country.
As far as that bill and the rules were different
than he was almost charged with a class three felony,
got kicked out of school, got sent over to a
remedial school per se, and he was there for his
(10:35):
whole freshman year, and so many terrible things came from that.
So that's pretty much what initially happened. He ended up
going to a Juvie Hall juvenile detention center like two
o'clock in the morning that night, and from there it's
(10:55):
just downhill as far as the experiences and everything that
we went through.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, So, doctor Wes, you know in your work with schools,
what types of interventions or what type of support and
resources are available students who may have who may be
caught with a device that may have something like gac
illegally in it. Can you tell us about what you're
(11:22):
seeing and hearing.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
That's a great question, Soway.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
So for our students, it's really on a case by
case basis. We have kind of taken on a restorative
justice approach instead of kind of going to punitive round.
For our students, it will depend on if the student
is called a tobacco or illicit drugs. That doesn't make
the difference, but we are centered around intervention and finding
ways for those students to kind of figure out why
they're using dates, educate them on the dangers of dates,
(11:47):
and then figure out what type of program that works
best for them in order to get them back into
a space to where they don't feel like they need
to use tobacco. A lot of students are using tobacco
for a reason, so we need to address the root
cause problem. Instead of looking at it more reactively, let's
look at it coactive and say, well, why is the
student using base? Is it just accessibility? Is it just
(12:07):
the student is stressed out? Is the student having problems
and the only way that they're able to feel like
they're able to calm themselves down is by smoking. So
let's address the issue at the group. And I feel
like that is what my institution and community is doing
a great job of specifically was working with family marriage.
We're creating programs that can kind of comprehensively, you know,
(12:29):
speak to students in a way that I believe is
going to be digestible for them.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
So Mary has created a program or work with us
to create a program.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That's about eight week course where students will be peer
to peer and teaching the dangers and the problems with
VABY and kind of go, you know, kind of use
that model to continue to progress the next cohort, if
you will.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
So I think that we're doing a great job is
kind of staying at the forefront of being.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Proactive rather than making in a punitive situation for our student.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yes, Bobby, whatding you seeing in your work around the country?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Most of the schools take a very similar approach, I
mean with you know, they recognize that this is a problem,
and since they believe that a lot of these devices
are containing some form of drugs like cannabis or or
or even stronger things, they have a concern for the
health and well being of the student body, and they should.
(13:24):
And so the idea here behind most of the programs,
if not all, is nonpunitive, but more so to identify
kids that are at risk so that you can help
them and do drug prevention education exactly like doctor West's talking,
so that they understand it as early on as possible
what they're doing. Because there's a reason why this stuff
(13:46):
is not allowed to be consumed by minors, because there's
a medical reason that it's not just a value.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
You're not supposed to have it because we don't want
you to.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
It's dangerous for kids to do this stuff in high volumes,
and so the idea of these programs is to find
out who's experimenting with this stuff as early as possible
and do it in a way that's non confrontational. I mean,
you know, you can walk into your kids room and
test his vape, you know, and now you know. Now
you can talk to him knowing what you know and
(14:16):
have a better conversation. So the goal in all this
kind of stuff is to really identify and refer to
educational programs where you can hopefully help the kid to
make better choices about possibly going down the path. Because
it is very easy to escalate from a nicotine vape
to a cannabis very very there's almost no stopping it
(14:39):
unless the kid just doesn't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, Andy, how is your son doing right now?
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Well, Muslim is doing great. It's definitely been quite the
trip from six years ago.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
He's he's finished school, he's doing well. And I do
agree with with what you guys are saying. While I
went through this, there was really no education part of it.
It was a It felt more like a neat jerk
reaction to put the parents and the students who got
(15:12):
in trouble in a room late at night after the
parents been working. The students have been to school all
day and sit around, and it felt very similar to
a detention per se, right, more than here learned something
that could really make a difference or not. As far
(15:32):
as my son, he ended up moving on and now
he works in the cannabis industry. He did turn into
a pediatric patient soon after the incident, because, like you
guys were saying there, the use of the THC or
the babes is an after effect of what's happening whatever
(15:53):
that is, right, I found out what that was with
my son, you know, And I don't want to say
the best way because it was very traumatic for him
at the moment, but he led to him wanting to
understand more about what this substance is and the dangers.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Of grabbing it from anywhere.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
That's to me, the main difference is educating the student
in a way that is digestible, like doctor West was saying,
because you can have a whole book worth of information
that is valuable, but if they can't digest two percent
of it, because it sounds like a textbook from history,
you know, it's almost like you didn't do anything.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
So I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
What advice would you give parents or caregarers who discover
that their teen or child may be vaping? What would
you say from a parent's perspective, what you experienced.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
That's a great question of hadio.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
I think that the most important part as me as
a speaking as a parent is to be able to
have an open line of communication with your child. And
obviously we all know that that's a lot easier said
and done, but I think the extra effort to create
a relationship that it's a little bit more rounded that
(17:10):
just father and son. And you would listen to me
and this is the way it goes right, I think,
I mean structure type relationship along with the part, the
parent part.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Gives the full spectrum as to.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
What is good, what is bad, and how you stay
away from things that can hurt you or your friends,
you know, because that's that was my biggest worry, and
that's the reason why I decided to look into the
medical program is because how easily accessible they are. They
are everywhere, and like all of you guys are saying,
they grab them, they throw them away, they probably have
(17:46):
another one waiting for them somewhere, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And yeah, I think education.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Not only from the parent to the children, but the
parent itself educating themselves before you go and just say
what you remember that somebody told you at one point,
you know, I think it's important for us parents to
be more educated than the children that we're trying to
educate on the subject and not learn or do it
(18:15):
as a learning experience together. Kind of like what I
did right. I was saying, Hey, let's learn this together
because this is important.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
For all of us. So that's kind of what I feel.
Doc the West.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Would you like to add to that.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Great I love haaring your first hand experience and how
you were able to bring the life to the fact
that this transition is very new from punitive to restore
to the nature. Twenty sixteen was not that long ago,
so for you to kind of still experience the you know,
the woes of, like you said, late night, being brought
(18:49):
into a room with your son as if he had
murdered someone when simply we're not not to undermine the
use of vy being in illicit drugs, but essentially that's
a way that we could have handled that. And I
do think now that we are in the space of
having these conversations now to address and say, hey, we
might not be doing this correctly, because if we are
penalizing a child for doing some harm to them essentially
(19:13):
with their uneducated sales not knowing the true implications of
what they're using, then what would we're really doing as
far as helping them long term, which is essentially what
a school is is a place to give them the
tools and the compass to be able to navigate life
in a way that's going to be best conducive for them.
(19:35):
So if we are already feeling them at the school
level where they are here eight hours a day, if
they don't trust the school, if we're not entrusting in
giving them the ability to say, hey, I know I
was wrong, I may be used in evate. Let's have
a conversation surround and why I'm using the bate. Let's
have a conversation informing me of the implications of using
the bank and maybe I understand more, but just to
(19:57):
simply put you guys in the room and make it
straight legalities.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I do not feel like we're doing ourselves as service.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So hearing your story is great because I know that
we're moving in a more positive direction because we do
have conversations like this. We do have schools like myself
who are setting up parameters in place to say, hey,
we're not going to immediately go get our school resource office.
Hey we're not going to immediately call the local police department.
We're going to create a sector within our school where
we can handle this in house, and it's going to
(20:25):
be done correctly, but it's going to be done in
a way that's going to be conducive for not only
the school, but also for that child. Ten years later
down the line, if your child comes to this school
and they are caught doing something of the nature that
they aren't supposed to be doing, we're going to address
that at that level for that child.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
It's not going to be an overarching.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Hey, we'll all starting to a vapor You're going to
be suspended for five days. If it has cannabis in it,
then that is going to automatically exclude you from ever
coming back to the school. No, Sometimes, if a child
is using vape vacing in it may have cannabis in it. Yes,
we will need to go to the legal ramifications just
based on who we're under, which is you know, the
districtal whomever. But we are able to say, let's find
(21:07):
counseling for this child. Let's bring this child into the
courses that we're doing with family married. Let's make that
a part of a contract to where the child has
to go through counseling, the child has to do the
program and complete the program. The child may have to
do some sense of community service or restorative justice only
for the school. Let's come up with the creative, creative
(21:29):
avenue to where we can still keep that student here
and not just push them to the side and make
them feel that the one mistake they made is going
to follow them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yes, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Everyone makes mistakes, and I think that we need to
do a better job of allowing for our kids to
be kids while still being an educational component and still
guiding them and steering them in the right place. Kids
need to be guided, and we can't do that by
immediately just throwing punitive and legal driving them. That's going
to make anyone shut down. So having these conversations is
(22:04):
where it starts.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Bobby. I love your take from what the work you're doing.
You're in hundreds of schools across the country. Are you
seeing similar activities like what doctor West has just outlined.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Well, let me just say, doctor West, that's exactly exactly
the right approach to take, because you're right. I mean,
look at what happened Anson one thing, and it changed
his whole life and he managed to get back out,
but a lot of people probably couldn't.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
So I'm a really big believer of everything that you
said there.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And I think many of the schools, even the ones
that are kind of have their own police departments. I mean,
you know, they're not really interested in prosecuting possession misdemeanor,
possession of a you know, a cannabis vavepen on a minor.
I mean, you know, they're more interested in making sure
this isn't turned into a long term criminality, right, and
(22:56):
so I think what you'll find is that that that
every one's open to an approach like this. Now it's
not like it used to be the stigma of uh,
it's something that we have to react to or overreaction
I think is gone, which is great.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It sets the stage for this and that's what we see.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I mean, we sell the balantly of the schools these
products that detect the vates, drugs and debate pits, and
almost all of them will explore a non punitive educational
approach first. You know, if there's multiple offenses or distribution
on campus or a really serious you know, drug like
(23:36):
fentanyl involved, they may have exceptions. But having a policy
like you had said that the school puts out and
all the parents sign up to or they know it's
not about that humid, punitive action. It's about helping a kid,
I think is something you'll find everybody can support all
the sides of this problem, the parents.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
The teachers, the school, the police. I mean, it's something
that everybody's in favor of.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So and I think that's exactly how our customers are
employing these kids and it's working very well.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, So, Bobby, it would be helpful. Now, maybe you
can show us how the schools that you're working with
are implementing drug testing and screening programs in ways that
keep students safe without creating fear, shame, or stigma, which
is what we're talking about here. So can you tell
us a little bit about swaptech and the work and
(24:30):
you're doing in the schools and show us how it works.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Okay, Well, every school, every school has their own policies
on how they're allowed to search for things.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I mean, no one's pulling some random kid aside and
frisking it for a vight pen right, but nine times
I mean also in every case it's either reported or
visually seen by someone of authority and they're collecting them. Okay,
So there's a policy for that that the school has,
and each school may have it slightly different, right, So
(25:02):
we don't try to get mixed up in how they
acquire these things.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
We just hey, they found them, what do we do?
So when they employ.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Our test kits, they'll try to identify if something is
let's say, cannabis related or non cannabis.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Related is a big demarkation.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
And then how they handle the positives is the next
big policy question that the school has to answer. And again,
the goal of all these programs is some form of
referral to a drug prevention and education program where you
can give the kid a second chance or a third
(25:40):
chance if he actually looks like he's someone that's you know,
has risky behavior that you could solve. So that's really
the approach and the way our kits work. I could
show you. Let me just switch my webcam here and
I'll just show you how they work. So this is
(26:03):
one of our test kits. It comes in a little
sachet that's got two compartments that hard and one for
a swab. This is that baypin that I showed you
before on the on the broadcast, and when someone smokes
a babe, what happens is little oil particles will deposit
them around around the mouthpiece. The oils are very very sticky,
(26:26):
and so there's always some oil residue left on a
previously smoked bake pen. And with our test kits, you
would just simply open up the sachet.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
We take out the little test card which looks like that.
It's got a.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Little reagent zone and a color identifier that tells you
what a positive looks like, and then it has a
little wetted swab inside that's prewetted to collect a sample. Basically,
what I would do is I would just swab the
mouthpiece of this bakepen with the swab, and then I
(27:01):
would go to the car and I would just mix
it with the printed reagent zone on the card, and
if it's positive for cannabis in this case, it'll turn
red like that.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Oh very fetch.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Yeah, it's an instant way to identify a marijuana vight
pen versus a regular cigarette, for example. And you know,
we have other test kits for dentanol and other hard
drugs that they would use to test bills and powders
and things.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
But this simple little test is.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
By far the volume of the problems that you see
on school grounds. And it's it's middle schools, it's high schools,
it's vocational schools. I mean, it's it's lots of places
where you'll see this problem of the simple dight pin
or even dummies. And we can test gummies as well
(27:52):
for the same thing and so and so that's what
the tool does. And with that simple test you can
actually make a decision, Hey, is this something more serious
than just vaping use right a flavor.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
So, Bobby, are you seeing like changes in behaviors and
schools where they're actually using these tools to you know,
let kids know, we can find out pretty quickly what
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Well, you know, we obviously we're not privy as a
private company to the sure what happens with individual cases
or anything like that as they go through the system.
But what does happen is the volume of things that
are being found is going.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Down at these rules.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Now, how much of that is related to successful drug
education and prevention.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
I don't really don't have access to.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But by using these tools and recording the results, a
school can actually monitor progress in terms of, you know,
how many things we find, what percentage of them are positive?
It used to be sixty percent, maybe now it's down
to twenty percent, you know, as in how many people
that were referred into the program have repeat offended zero.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Oh, that's progress, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So it gives you a way to actually start to
generate some tracking data on how well you're attacking the
problem in each of the different you know, components of
the process your acquisition, testing and referral and education.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, that's why, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I'd be curious to know what Andy and doctor Westling's
and what.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
They just saw. Yeah, I would say this.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I love it because it takes the power back away
from throwing our kids into law enforcements hands and gives
it back to the schools. And what I will see
in the next ten years or so, particularly with persons
that you work with the school system that you work with,
is them creating boards and creating different programs specifically tailored
around your findings. So, for instance, if we have a
(29:51):
student yere at my school who might be using a vapor,
the only way for us to test it is to
go through our local police department. We don't have the
the apparatus, We don't have the kids to be able
to say, hey, well, this student is vaping or this
student is using cannabis. So essentially we'll probably have to
treat it all the same. But what you're doing is
given the schools the ability to say, hey, you know what,
(30:12):
this student is using tobacco particts or this student is
using cannabis. Let's create avenues to address it within our
school system, as opposed to taking it and saying, hey,
well we have twenty baps here that we've collected this week.
We need a police officer officer to come out and
collect these vapes, get them tested, and essentially it might
not have the stigma to the students.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
But overall that stuff has to be documented.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And what I'm saying is when we create a culture
of feeding our children to local law enforcement for something
and not as simple, because it's not simple, but something
as minute as vaping, I do feel like we are
creating a culture of punitive and I keep saying that
word is making students feel as if any and everything
(30:58):
that they do is going to be bar too low.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
It's not that I would add one more thing to
that is that you know, as a law enforcement officer,
when I when I find something, in many cases, my
hands are tied.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
I can't give you a break even if I want to.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
So you know, I would say that that approach of
having control and then being able to decide when to
engage is the same thing that a parent would go through.
They're not going to call something they find in their
kids room into the police either, And so it's I
It's exactly what it's about, is taking giving you a
tool that gives you a little more control over making
the critical decision and deciding when to do that.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
There you go, sir.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, So as a parent, I wish to be honest
that this device or a similar device was available at
the moment simply because the trauma, and I want to
say trauma, because it was traumatic for him, the process
from the bathroom to the principal's office and then walking
(32:04):
out in handcuffs in front of the whole school to
get put in the back of that school police officer's
car and then driven to some location, you know, outside
of the school. That alone was something that he still
talks about, right, And just having this device, let's say
(32:26):
at the school or the police officer at the school,
being able to right there and then or maybe a
few minutes later in an office in the controlled area,
test the device and go move forward with whatever's there. Right,
And let's say we had that device and we had
doctor West's way of handling stuff in his school in combination,
(32:49):
it would have been I probably wouldn't even be sitting here,
to be honest with you, because I would have had
all that stuff to tell you. And I'm glad that
I'm here able to share that in from it, but
I wish I wasn't here sharing that information.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
So yeah, I love what.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
The swap Tech company is doing, what doctor West is doing,
and FAM you as well with Marriage's program bringing in
real education that can be utilize in combination with all
these things. I think that moving forward, if it's done
correctly with the right mindset, which is not to punish, right,
(33:29):
but to educate and the form, I think in that
out in the future we'll be able to see what
mister Betrich was saying. Oh my goodness, there is an
improvement in what's going on. So yeah, I think it's
great to be honest with you, right, think it's something
great that everything is going on here.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Well, Bobby, doctor West, and Andy. I want to thank
you all for being guests on this conversation 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. It is clear that youth
vaping is a community responsibility, not just a school or
(34:09):
a family issue. FAM you, Mary is focused on education,
grounded in research, public health, and real life impact. As
you can see, the perspectives of our guests remind us
that awareness must turn into action. So I am excited
to announce the launch of Mary's Youth Vaping Education and
Empowerment Initiative, featuring three key components. A youth module focused
(34:35):
on prevention and decision making skills, a parent module equipping
families with knowledge and tools to recognize the warning signs,
and an educature educator module offering resources and strategies for
schools to address vaping effectively. As a matter of fact,
participating schools like Doctor West will also receive swab tech
(35:00):
detection kits to imverify vape devices that may contain THHC.
These tools are not just about punishment, as you heard
from our speakers. They are about clarity, safety, and informed intervention.
And Mary's goal is simple empower families, support schools, and
protect our youth through education. So stay connected with fam
(35:23):
You Mary to access these new resources and community solutions,
and I encourage you to follow them on social media
or visit the fam You Mary website. Thanks for watching.
The views and opinions of our invited guests are not
necessarily the views and opinions of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
University or the Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative
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 VMUTI.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi. I'm Heidi Otway, your host for this conversations 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 growing use of vapes
by school children and youth across Florida and what's being
(00:33):
done to address this hidden public health crisis. So let's
talk and learn about this subject with our guests. Baddy
Beetros is the CEO of Swaptech, where he's developed innovative
field test kits to securely detect narcotics and vapes. His
kits are used by public and private organizations across the US,
(00:54):
including law enforcement, government agencies, and the aviation industry, as
well as in classrooms and homes or safe field testing
has never been possible before. Our other guest is doctor
Michael West Junior. He's a behavioral specialist who supports K
through twelve students with evidence based behavioral interventions and holistic
(01:17):
student development initiatives. His work centers on helping students successfully
reintegrate into the classroom by equipping them with social emotional
competencies and positive behavioral strategies. And rounding out our panel
is Andy Donado, who currently serves as vice president of
The Grateful Veteran, where he leads strategic initiatives that empowered
(01:41):
veterans and their transition to civilian life. He is joining
the show to share his experience as a parent whose
child was accused of possessing a vape at school. He'll
share his personal insights on the challenges families face when
dealing with youth behavioral concerns. To everyone watching, please share
(02:02):
the link to this form on your social media channels
so others can learn about this topic. We also want
you to tell us what you think about this form
by completing the survey that will be posted on Mary's
social media pages. Your name will be entered into a
drawing in March twenty twenty six to win a one
hundred dollars gift card provided by one of Mary's partners. Now,
(02:25):
let's start this conversation on cannabis. Bobby, I'm going to
start with you so that you can tell our viewers
and listeners what vaping is and why it's increased significantly
over the last few years.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, vaping is the active it's really when you inhale
an aerosol that's produced by burning a liquid or an oil,
and there share these devices that are called vape pens
that contain these atomizers but basically take that liquid and
mocinerate it and generate an aerosol that you can inhale.
(03:03):
So unlike smoking burning back, you're inhaling these heated liquids.
And lots of these things contain chemicals, nicotine, very strong
amounts of nicotine, flavorings, and other things that are just
unknown what the long term effects are on the human body,
(03:25):
things like the g li drawls and the flavors and
sometimes heavy metals and these maples. Yeah, concerning ones in
my opinion nowadays are really the ones that contain cannabis.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And cannabis related products.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, because there's regular marijuana that everyone's heard about, but
now there's synthetic cannabis products, which are things that are
called Delta eight and Delta ten, which are also very psychoactive.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Haven't been studied that much.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Anergy are created in the lab, and so there's not
a lot of history on these other cannabis variantsesthetic ones,
but there is a lot known about about the danger
and entling.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Bate's most in Canada.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, when these devices first came out, they looked like
and we're called e cigarettes. But now they are very
discreet and they look like you know, everyday products. Can
you tell us about how they've evolved over the years,
and maybe you can show us what discrete and hard
detect vaate pins look like nowadays.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Sure, so, Yeah, it's been a real evolution since it
all started. Back when people were first selling these e cigarettes,
there was a company called Jewel which was marketing these
things to kids with special flavorings and colors, and that
has now kind of evolved into a whole industry that
makes these kinds of date pen devices. And some of
(04:56):
them are disposable. Now there's no reefilling of the cartridges.
They do have those, but these become even more difficult.
Someone can just throw them away and worry about it.
Since then, the industry has started to make everyday objects
that look like and function like everyday objects, but are
(05:18):
actually vate pins. Like here's a regular pin that we'll
write on paper. But if you pop this off and
unscrew this, you can smoke.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
It like a vape pin.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Here's Bob and again this is another product that you
can just pop off the end and insert the cartridge
and you're now smoking a VP pin. And who would
ever know that that's what this device is. So it's
becoming even harder and harder to detect the vate pins
by their appearance. But even still, it's harder to know
(05:50):
the difference of what's inside those things. Is it really
hard drugs, is it marijuana? Or is it just an
eat cigarette that's got a ton of nickedine. I mean,
these are all kinds of questions that you need to
worry about because nowadays almost all the kids are using
these are very high percentage.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, well, speaking of a percentage in Florida, about six
point three percent of middle school or say they're currently vaping.
So I want to go to doctor West and what
are you and your piercing when it comes to youth
vaping in schools.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
To add a caveat to mister Beachos, some of the
challenges with our experience are the novelty and accessibility of
those items. The novelty is probably the biggest problem that
we have. Things are now very disguisable, so it's really
hard for staff to really understand what we're dealing with.
So we really need to take a step back and
educate ourselves because fifteen to twenty years ago, smoking on
(06:42):
canvas looked like a student using cigarettes.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Today, mister Beacho's just showed us a key fob.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Where student is able to walk around and inconspicuously use
vaping and we don't even know it. So we have
to start at the education and once we educate our staff, parents, personnel,
and everybody around, then we're better to aible address the issue.
So doing these talks and having these conversations like this
allow for us to see how we bigorous those items are.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
I didn't even know that you could use the key file.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That looks like something I could put on my keychain
right now and nobody would know that I had a
vate And that's concerning. That's very alarming because for a
teacher who has twenty to thirty students, as a principal
who has two, three, four thousand, even sometimes more than
that depending on the school, to look over, it's really
hard for you to pinpoint and say, hey, this student's
(07:31):
walking around with a keychain or a pin or a
highlighter and that's a date and you don't even know it. So,
like I said, going back to the education of all
person your parents as well as or we'll be able
to start our groundwork.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, Bobby, can you share the image that you have
of some devices that have been confiscated in schools?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Sure, there you go. So this is a picture from.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
One of our high school customers in Arkansas when we
first came on board, and this picture represents what they
were finding on the student body at school with every month.
So this is a month's worth of confiscations for this
particular high school. And if you look closely, oops, if
you look closely at this stuff, you'll see it's primarily baypins.
(08:18):
But there are definitely pills and powders over here on
the left, got some gummies. You've got lots of pipes
and bonds in the back there and other devices, but
again it's primarily baypens. And what we find when we
go into schools that have these kinds of problems, which
is very widespread.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
It's not just in states that have legalized marijuana.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
It's now made its available as beer and cigarettes for kids.
But about half of this stuff is got drugs in it,
most of the cannabis or some cannabis variant, but about
half of that. And so that's a really important thing
to know when you look at you know, at how
many kids.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Are doing this. I mean this is just one high school.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, and the fact that they continue to collect these
things every month means that when you collect them, they're.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Just bringing a new one.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
You know, there's a big problem to get access.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
But well, this is how bad the problem is.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah. Well, I want to go to Andy now so
he can kind of share the story of what he
experienced with his son who was caught with a vague
device in his school. Andy, can you share your story
with us please?
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Yeah, thank you for having me here. So my son
was a freshman in high school. He had just started
his high school career, per se, and weeks into it,
I get a call like around one o'clock in the
afternoon saying that there was some issues in the bathroom
and something serious happened. They didn't really explain to me
(09:48):
over the phone. So I left my job and I
went straight to the school, and that's when I found
out that it was my son and a group of
other students in the bathroom. They were passing a vape
around and to be honest, somehow another they determined that
(10:08):
it was.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
THC.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
And this is early on. This was around twenty sixteen,
twenty seventeen, right after the HEMP got introduced into the country.
As far as that bill and the rules were different
than he was almost charged with a class three felony,
got kicked out of school, got sent over to a
remedial school per se, and he was there for his
(10:35):
whole freshman year, and so many terrible things came from that.
So that's pretty much what initially happened. He ended up
going to a Juvie Hall juvenile detention center like two
o'clock in the morning that night, and from there it's
(10:55):
just downhill as far as the experiences and everything that
we went through.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, So, doctor Wes, you know in your work with schools,
what types of interventions or what type of support and
resources are available students who may have who may be
caught with a device that may have something like gac
illegally in it. Can you tell us about what you're
(11:22):
seeing and hearing.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
That's a great question, Soway.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
So for our students, it's really on a case by
case basis. We have kind of taken on a restorative
justice approach instead of kind of going to punitive round.
For our students, it will depend on if the student
is called a tobacco or illicit drugs. That doesn't make
the difference, but we are centered around intervention and finding
ways for those students to kind of figure out why
they're using dates, educate them on the dangers of dates,
(11:47):
and then figure out what type of program that works
best for them in order to get them back into
a space to where they don't feel like they need
to use tobacco. A lot of students are using tobacco
for a reason, so we need to address the root
cause problem. Instead of looking at it more reactively, let's
look at it coactive and say, well, why is the
student using base? Is it just accessibility? Is it just
(12:07):
the student is stressed out? Is the student having problems
and the only way that they're able to feel like
they're able to calm themselves down is by smoking. So
let's address the issue at the group. And I feel
like that is what my institution and community is doing
a great job of specifically was working with family marriage.
We're creating programs that can kind of comprehensively, you know,
(12:29):
speak to students in a way that I believe is
going to be digestible for them.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
So Mary has created a program or work with us
to create a program.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That's about eight week course where students will be peer
to peer and teaching the dangers and the problems with
VABY and kind of go, you know, kind of use
that model to continue to progress the next cohort, if
you will.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
So I think that we're doing a great job is
kind of staying at the forefront of being.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Proactive rather than making in a punitive situation for our student.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yes, Bobby, whatding you seeing in your work around the country?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Most of the schools take a very similar approach, I
mean with you know, they recognize that this is a problem,
and since they believe that a lot of these devices
are containing some form of drugs like cannabis or or
or even stronger things, they have a concern for the
health and well being of the student body, and they should.
(13:24):
And so the idea here behind most of the programs,
if not all, is nonpunitive, but more so to identify
kids that are at risk so that you can help
them and do drug prevention education exactly like doctor West's talking,
so that they understand it as early on as possible
what they're doing. Because there's a reason why this stuff
(13:46):
is not allowed to be consumed by minors, because there's
a medical reason that it's not just a value.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
You're not supposed to have it because we don't want
you to.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
It's dangerous for kids to do this stuff in high volumes,
and so the idea of these programs is to find
out who's experimenting with this stuff as early as possible
and do it in a way that's non confrontational. I mean,
you know, you can walk into your kids room and
test his vape, you know, and now you know. Now
you can talk to him knowing what you know and
(14:16):
have a better conversation. So the goal in all this
kind of stuff is to really identify and refer to
educational programs where you can hopefully help the kid to
make better choices about possibly going down the path. Because
it is very easy to escalate from a nicotine vape
to a cannabis very very there's almost no stopping it
(14:39):
unless the kid just doesn't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, Andy, how is your son doing right now?
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Well, Muslim is doing great. It's definitely been quite the
trip from six years ago.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
He's he's finished school, he's doing well. And I do
agree with with what you guys are saying. While I
went through this, there was really no education part of it.
It was a It felt more like a neat jerk
reaction to put the parents and the students who got
(15:12):
in trouble in a room late at night after the
parents been working. The students have been to school all
day and sit around, and it felt very similar to
a detention per se, right, more than here learned something
that could really make a difference or not. As far
(15:32):
as my son, he ended up moving on and now
he works in the cannabis industry. He did turn into
a pediatric patient soon after the incident, because, like you
guys were saying there, the use of the THC or
the babes is an after effect of what's happening whatever
(15:53):
that is, right, I found out what that was with
my son, you know, And I don't want to say
the best way because it was very traumatic for him
at the moment, but he led to him wanting to
understand more about what this substance is and the dangers.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Of grabbing it from anywhere.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
That's to me, the main difference is educating the student
in a way that is digestible, like doctor West was saying,
because you can have a whole book worth of information
that is valuable, but if they can't digest two percent
of it, because it sounds like a textbook from history,
you know, it's almost like you didn't do anything.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
So I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
What advice would you give parents or caregarers who discover
that their teen or child may be vaping? What would
you say from a parent's perspective, what you experienced.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
That's a great question of hadio.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
I think that the most important part as me as
a speaking as a parent is to be able to
have an open line of communication with your child. And
obviously we all know that that's a lot easier said
and done, but I think the extra effort to create
a relationship that it's a little bit more rounded that
(17:10):
just father and son. And you would listen to me
and this is the way it goes right, I think,
I mean structure type relationship along with the part, the
parent part.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Gives the full spectrum as to.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
What is good, what is bad, and how you stay
away from things that can hurt you or your friends,
you know, because that's that was my biggest worry, and
that's the reason why I decided to look into the
medical program is because how easily accessible they are. They
are everywhere, and like all of you guys are saying,
they grab them, they throw them away, they probably have
(17:46):
another one waiting for them somewhere, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And yeah, I think education.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Not only from the parent to the children, but the
parent itself educating themselves before you go and just say
what you remember that somebody told you at one point,
you know, I think it's important for us parents to
be more educated than the children that we're trying to
educate on the subject and not learn or do it
(18:15):
as a learning experience together. Kind of like what I
did right. I was saying, Hey, let's learn this together
because this is important.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
For all of us. So that's kind of what I feel.
Doc the West.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Would you like to add to that.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Great I love haaring your first hand experience and how
you were able to bring the life to the fact
that this transition is very new from punitive to restore
to the nature. Twenty sixteen was not that long ago,
so for you to kind of still experience the you know,
the woes of, like you said, late night, being brought
(18:49):
into a room with your son as if he had
murdered someone when simply we're not not to undermine the
use of vy being in illicit drugs, but essentially that's
a way that we could have handled that. And I
do think now that we are in the space of
having these conversations now to address and say, hey, we
might not be doing this correctly, because if we are
penalizing a child for doing some harm to them essentially
(19:13):
with their uneducated sales not knowing the true implications of
what they're using, then what would we're really doing as
far as helping them long term, which is essentially what
a school is is a place to give them the
tools and the compass to be able to navigate life
in a way that's going to be best conducive for them.
(19:35):
So if we are already feeling them at the school
level where they are here eight hours a day, if
they don't trust the school, if we're not entrusting in
giving them the ability to say, hey, I know I
was wrong, I may be used in evate. Let's have
a conversation surround and why I'm using the bate. Let's
have a conversation informing me of the implications of using
the bank and maybe I understand more, but just to
(19:57):
simply put you guys in the room and make it
straight legalities.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I do not feel like we're doing ourselves as service.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So hearing your story is great because I know that
we're moving in a more positive direction because we do
have conversations like this. We do have schools like myself
who are setting up parameters in place to say, hey,
we're not going to immediately go get our school resource office.
Hey we're not going to immediately call the local police department.
We're going to create a sector within our school where
we can handle this in house, and it's going to
(20:25):
be done correctly, but it's going to be done in
a way that's going to be conducive for not only
the school, but also for that child. Ten years later
down the line, if your child comes to this school
and they are caught doing something of the nature that
they aren't supposed to be doing, we're going to address
that at that level for that child.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
It's not going to be an overarching.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Hey, we'll all starting to a vapor You're going to
be suspended for five days. If it has cannabis in it,
then that is going to automatically exclude you from ever
coming back to the school. No, Sometimes, if a child
is using vape vacing in it may have cannabis in it. Yes,
we will need to go to the legal ramifications just
based on who we're under, which is you know, the
districtal whomever. But we are able to say, let's find
(21:07):
counseling for this child. Let's bring this child into the
courses that we're doing with family married. Let's make that
a part of a contract to where the child has
to go through counseling, the child has to do the
program and complete the program. The child may have to
do some sense of community service or restorative justice only
for the school. Let's come up with the creative, creative
(21:29):
avenue to where we can still keep that student here
and not just push them to the side and make
them feel that the one mistake they made is going
to follow them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yes, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Everyone makes mistakes, and I think that we need to
do a better job of allowing for our kids to
be kids while still being an educational component and still
guiding them and steering them in the right place. Kids
need to be guided, and we can't do that by
immediately just throwing punitive and legal driving them. That's going
to make anyone shut down. So having these conversations is
(22:04):
where it starts.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Bobby. I love your take from what the work you're doing.
You're in hundreds of schools across the country. Are you
seeing similar activities like what doctor West has just outlined.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Well, let me just say, doctor West, that's exactly exactly
the right approach to take, because you're right. I mean,
look at what happened Anson one thing, and it changed
his whole life and he managed to get back out,
but a lot of people probably couldn't.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
So I'm a really big believer of everything that you
said there.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And I think many of the schools, even the ones
that are kind of have their own police departments. I mean,
you know, they're not really interested in prosecuting possession misdemeanor,
possession of a you know, a cannabis vavepen on a minor.
I mean, you know, they're more interested in making sure
this isn't turned into a long term criminality, right, and
(22:56):
so I think what you'll find is that that that
every one's open to an approach like this. Now it's
not like it used to be the stigma of uh,
it's something that we have to react to or overreaction
I think is gone, which is great.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It sets the stage for this and that's what we see.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I mean, we sell the balantly of the schools these
products that detect the vates, drugs and debate pits, and
almost all of them will explore a non punitive educational
approach first. You know, if there's multiple offenses or distribution
on campus or a really serious you know, drug like
(23:36):
fentanyl involved, they may have exceptions. But having a policy
like you had said that the school puts out and
all the parents sign up to or they know it's
not about that humid, punitive action. It's about helping a kid,
I think is something you'll find everybody can support all
the sides of this problem, the parents.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
The teachers, the school, the police. I mean, it's something
that everybody's in favor of.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So and I think that's exactly how our customers are
employing these kids and it's working very well.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, So, Bobby, it would be helpful. Now, maybe you
can show us how the schools that you're working with
are implementing drug testing and screening programs in ways that
keep students safe without creating fear, shame, or stigma, which
is what we're talking about here. So can you tell
us a little bit about swaptech and the work and
(24:30):
you're doing in the schools and show us how it works.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Okay, Well, every school, every school has their own policies
on how they're allowed to search for things.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I mean, no one's pulling some random kid aside and
frisking it for a vight pen right, but nine times
I mean also in every case it's either reported or
visually seen by someone of authority and they're collecting them. Okay,
So there's a policy for that that the school has,
and each school may have it slightly different, right, So
(25:02):
we don't try to get mixed up in how they
acquire these things.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
We just hey, they found them, what do we do?
So when they employ.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Our test kits, they'll try to identify if something is
let's say, cannabis related or non cannabis.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Related is a big demarkation.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
And then how they handle the positives is the next
big policy question that the school has to answer. And again,
the goal of all these programs is some form of
referral to a drug prevention and education program where you
can give the kid a second chance or a third
(25:40):
chance if he actually looks like he's someone that's you know,
has risky behavior that you could solve. So that's really
the approach and the way our kits work. I could
show you. Let me just switch my webcam here and
I'll just show you how they work. So this is
(26:03):
one of our test kits. It comes in a little
sachet that's got two compartments that hard and one for
a swab. This is that baypin that I showed you
before on the on the broadcast, and when someone smokes
a babe, what happens is little oil particles will deposit
them around around the mouthpiece. The oils are very very sticky,
(26:26):
and so there's always some oil residue left on a
previously smoked bake pen. And with our test kits, you
would just simply open up the sachet.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
We take out the little test card which looks like that.
It's got a.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Little reagent zone and a color identifier that tells you
what a positive looks like, and then it has a
little wetted swab inside that's prewetted to collect a sample. Basically,
what I would do is I would just swab the
mouthpiece of this bakepen with the swab, and then I
(27:01):
would go to the car and I would just mix
it with the printed reagent zone on the card, and
if it's positive for cannabis in this case, it'll turn
red like that.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Oh very fetch.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Yeah, it's an instant way to identify a marijuana vight
pen versus a regular cigarette, for example. And you know,
we have other test kits for dentanol and other hard
drugs that they would use to test bills and powders
and things.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
But this simple little test is.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
By far the volume of the problems that you see
on school grounds. And it's it's middle schools, it's high schools,
it's vocational schools. I mean, it's it's lots of places
where you'll see this problem of the simple dight pin
or even dummies. And we can test gummies as well
(27:52):
for the same thing and so and so that's what
the tool does. And with that simple test you can
actually make a decision, Hey, is this something more serious
than just vaping use right a flavor.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
So, Bobby, are you seeing like changes in behaviors and
schools where they're actually using these tools to you know,
let kids know, we can find out pretty quickly what
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Well, you know, we obviously we're not privy as a
private company to the sure what happens with individual cases
or anything like that as they go through the system.
But what does happen is the volume of things that
are being found is going.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Down at these rules.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Now, how much of that is related to successful drug
education and prevention.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
I don't really don't have access to.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But by using these tools and recording the results, a
school can actually monitor progress in terms of, you know,
how many things we find, what percentage of them are positive?
It used to be sixty percent, maybe now it's down
to twenty percent, you know, as in how many people
that were referred into the program have repeat offended zero.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Oh, that's progress, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So it gives you a way to actually start to
generate some tracking data on how well you're attacking the
problem in each of the different you know, components of
the process your acquisition, testing and referral and education.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, that's why, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I'd be curious to know what Andy and doctor Westling's
and what.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
They just saw. Yeah, I would say this.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I love it because it takes the power back away
from throwing our kids into law enforcements hands and gives
it back to the schools. And what I will see
in the next ten years or so, particularly with persons
that you work with the school system that you work with,
is them creating boards and creating different programs specifically tailored
around your findings. So, for instance, if we have a
(29:51):
student yere at my school who might be using a vapor,
the only way for us to test it is to
go through our local police department. We don't have the
the apparatus, We don't have the kids to be able
to say, hey, well, this student is vaping or this
student is using cannabis. So essentially we'll probably have to
treat it all the same. But what you're doing is
given the schools the ability to say, hey, you know what,
(30:12):
this student is using tobacco particts or this student is
using cannabis. Let's create avenues to address it within our
school system, as opposed to taking it and saying, hey,
well we have twenty baps here that we've collected this week.
We need a police officer officer to come out and
collect these vapes, get them tested, and essentially it might
not have the stigma to the students.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
But overall that stuff has to be documented.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And what I'm saying is when we create a culture
of feeding our children to local law enforcement for something
and not as simple, because it's not simple, but something
as minute as vaping, I do feel like we are
creating a culture of punitive and I keep saying that
word is making students feel as if any and everything
(30:58):
that they do is going to be bar too low.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
It's not that I would add one more thing to
that is that you know, as a law enforcement officer,
when I when I find something, in many cases, my
hands are tied.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
I can't give you a break even if I want to.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
So you know, I would say that that approach of
having control and then being able to decide when to
engage is the same thing that a parent would go through.
They're not going to call something they find in their
kids room into the police either, And so it's I
It's exactly what it's about, is taking giving you a
tool that gives you a little more control over making
the critical decision and deciding when to do that.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
There you go, sir.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, So as a parent, I wish to be honest
that this device or a similar device was available at
the moment simply because the trauma, and I want to
say trauma, because it was traumatic for him, the process
from the bathroom to the principal's office and then walking
(32:04):
out in handcuffs in front of the whole school to
get put in the back of that school police officer's
car and then driven to some location, you know, outside
of the school. That alone was something that he still
talks about, right, And just having this device, let's say
(32:26):
at the school or the police officer at the school,
being able to right there and then or maybe a
few minutes later in an office in the controlled area,
test the device and go move forward with whatever's there. Right,
And let's say we had that device and we had
doctor West's way of handling stuff in his school in combination,
(32:49):
it would have been I probably wouldn't even be sitting here,
to be honest with you, because I would have had
all that stuff to tell you. And I'm glad that
I'm here able to share that in from it, but
I wish I wasn't here sharing that information.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
So yeah, I love what.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
The swap Tech company is doing, what doctor West is doing,
and FAM you as well with Marriage's program bringing in
real education that can be utilize in combination with all
these things. I think that moving forward, if it's done
correctly with the right mindset, which is not to punish, right,
(33:29):
but to educate and the form, I think in that
out in the future we'll be able to see what
mister Betrich was saying. Oh my goodness, there is an
improvement in what's going on. So yeah, I think it's
great to be honest with you, right, think it's something
great that everything is going on here.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Well, Bobby, doctor West, and Andy. I want to thank
you all for being guests on this conversation 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. It is clear that youth
vaping is a community responsibility, not just a school or
(34:09):
a family issue. FAM you, Mary is focused on education,
grounded in research, public health, and real life impact. As
you can see, the perspectives of our guests remind us
that awareness must turn into action. So I am excited
to announce the launch of Mary's Youth Vaping Education and
Empowerment Initiative, featuring three key components. A youth module focused
(34:35):
on prevention and decision making skills, a parent module equipping
families with knowledge and tools to recognize the warning signs,
and an educature educator module offering resources and strategies for
schools to address vaping effectively. As a matter of fact,
participating schools like Doctor West will also receive swab tech
(35:00):
detection kits to imverify vape devices that may contain THHC.
These tools are not just about punishment, as you heard
from our speakers. They are about clarity, safety, and informed intervention.
And Mary's goal is simple empower families, support schools, and
protect our youth through education. So stay connected with fam
(35:23):
You Mary to access these new resources and community solutions,
and I encourage you to follow them on social media
or visit the fam You Mary website. Thanks for watching.
The views and opinions of our invited guests are not
necessarily the views and opinions of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
University or the Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative
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