Responding to Youth Vaping Epidemic, County Bans Flavored Nicotine Products

It was late last Tuesday morning, and Vanessa Ramirez should have been on her way to her next class, she said. Instead, the Dos Pueblos High School junior felt compelled to “advocate for all my friends.” 

Ramirez was addressing the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors as they considered a sweeping ban on all flavored nicotine products, including the e-juice used in vaping devices, which the U.S. surgeon general has blamed for a new epidemic of nicotine addiction among youth. 

Locally, between 2016 and 2018, e-cigarettes usage nearly doubled, from 6 percent to 10 percent, by 9th graders, and 8 percent to 15 percent by 11th graders. Each juice pod sold by Juul, the brand with a majority share of the market, contains as much nicotine as two packs of cigarettes; young users typically ingest one to four pods a day that are made to taste like pop tarts, ice cream, apple juice, or other treats. Devices are manufactured in the shapes of pens, wallets, and watches to hide in plain sight. Santa Barbara teachers describe school hallways and bathrooms permeated by the sickly-sugary aroma of vapor.