The “Marijuana, Vaping and the Youth” discussion that took place at Somerville High School last week focused on the use of marijuana and e-cigarettes in high schools.

By Jackson Ellison 

A discussion for adults entitled Marijuana, Vaping and the Youth took place at Somerville High School on Thursday, February 7. The discussion focused on the use of marijuana and e-cigarettes in high schools, and was put on by the Somerville Prevention Services, the SHS PTSA, and Somerville’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Matt Mitchell, a licensed social worker and director of the Prevention Center for the HHS, gave the talk about the dangers of high school students using marijuana. While he assured parents that it is nearly impossible to overdose on marijuana, he warned that people can consume too much.

“The term is known as greening out, which describes the situation of someone feeling sick after smoking after cannabis,” Mitchell said. “They could go pale, they could start to sweat, or feel dizzy and nervous and may even start vomiting.”

Mitchell presented statistics focused on marijuana use by school-aged kids. In Massachusetts, 8.91 percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 reported using marijuana in the last 30 days. 81.5 percent of the students surveyed indicated that they used marijuana to relax. “That’s a pretty significant amount of individuals, who are using marijuana, saying that they are using it to relax,” said Mitchell.

Another topic for the discussion was the rise of e-cigarettes used by high schoolers in Massachusetts. Vaping has become a popular form of smoking for young people as many people are under the impression that it is safer than smoking regular cigarettes. “From 2017 to 2018, we saw a 78 percent increase in the number of U.S. high school students who vape,” according to Mitchell.

While people claim that vaping is safer than cigarettes, Mitchell said that the amount of nicotine in one e-cigarette pod is equivalent to the amount of nicotine in a pack of cigarettes.

Mitchell said that the FDA is now trying to come down on Juul, a popular e-cigarette, mainly because they have used kid-friendly advertising. “[Juul] said they would stop selling flavored products like mango cream and cucumber in stores,” said Mitchell. Other Juul flavors like mint are still available in stores such as gas stations in Somerville.

However, Mitchell believes that the FDA has not made enough progress in regulating the packaging on e-cigarettes. “They are trying but they aren’t trying hard enough,” Mitchell said. “I think they are thinking about it in terms of they want a ban overall and don’t even want [e-cigarettes] to be a thing.”

MaryLou Carey-Sturniolo, the Vice President of the Somerville PTSA, made it clear that marijuana and vaping are problems in the local schools. “There is a lot of vaping going on and there is a lot of marijuana smoking right here in the high school,” said Carey-Sturniolo, “and I just think it really hurts all of the students.”

Carey-Sturniolo called for people to start speaking up by contacting city officials in order to solve the problem at hand. “This is an epidemic, and … if we start accepting this it will just get bigger and bigger.”

This discussion followed the Somerville Cares about Prevention meeting last week that revealed the health survey results for the Somerville High Schools. Now the different health organizations in Somerville will be looking at how to better educate Somerville students on the risks of marijuana and vaping.