Teen weed vaping spikes in Virginia schools

The big picture: Michelle Peace, a VCU forensic science professor who's been studying vaping and cannabis use for a decade, has been tracking the vaping shift in Virginia schools in her research.

• Since 2019, Peace has headed up a program that tests vape pens found or confiscated in K-12 schools across the state. School administrators collect them and ship them in for regular testing.
• The results, she tells Axios, are revealing.

By the numbers: Of the first batch of vape pen samples, collected by schools in fall 2019, 100% contained nicotine. Just 1% of those first 75 samples also tested positive for some form of cannabis.

• In mid-2023, 14% of the 107 samples tested contained cannabis or a cannabis-like substance. Half of those were synthetic cannabinoids (like Delta-8 and Delta-9, as opposed to products derived from cannabis plants). 86% of samples contained nicotine.
• By fall 2023, 19% of the 253 vape pen samples collected from Virginia's K-12 schools contained a weed or a weed-like substance. Nicotine vapes dropped to 81%.
• The results of last year's batch of samples are still being finalized.

Threat level: The vape samples submitted for Peace's program are coming from all levels of K-12 schools, including the ones that contain cannabinoids.

• Of the last batch, 78% came from high schools, 14% from middle schools, and 2% were sent in from Virginia elementary schools.

What we're hearing: In Richmond, teen weed vaping isn't just happening in one school or district, nor is it limited to public schools.

• It's happening on the bus, in the parking lot, and sometimes openly in the classroom — but most often, it seems, in school bathrooms — multiple Richmond-area parents tell Axios.
• Two local parents tell us the bathroom situation has gotten so bad, their kids "hold it" until they get home so they don't have to be exposed to the weed vapes or feel pressured into trying it.

Part of the issue with teen vaping overall is how easily kids can access the products, says Caroline Cobb, the director of VCU's health psychology program and part of Peace's team.

• Their research tracks where students say they got the vapes. The most common response is from a friend, followed by direct purchase.
• The direct purchase portion is especially worrying, Cobb says.
• Kids can simply walk into one of the many vape and tobacco shops across Richmond and buy these products. And once they do, they tell their friends where to go, and so on.

Worth noting: THC products like Delta 8 are illegal in Virginia, as is the buying and selling of recreational weed, and nicotine to anyone under 21.

Another issue, Cobb says, is that some parents seem to turn a blind eye to it, shrugging off trying weed as a normal part of high school.

• But today's vape products are very different than whatever the teens' parents likely smoked.
• Many of the products the researchers test contain highly concentrated synthetic chemicals that are not FDA-approved for any consumption, plus methamphetamines, ethanol, synthetic coolants and other dangerous ingredients that, unsurprisingly, aren't great for developing kids.

Plus, existing enforcement efforts, like bathroom vape detectors, often don't work because by the time an adult responds, the kids are gone or it's unclear which kid had the vape to begin with.

• The vapes are so small, they're easy to conceal, Cobb notes. Or the kids simply flush them. (The researchers have received vape samples containing whole sections of toilets with the vapes still lodged in the pipes.)

What we're watching: While prevention work exists, Cobb notes that some programs, including the Virginia Tobacco Control Program, just lost their funding.

What's ultimately needed, Cobb says, is a strong prevention program aimed at teens and "a strong intervention arm to help the kids that are already using."

• She said she's heard good things about "Catch My Breath," a youth vaping prevention program developed for students grades 5-12, as well as a tiered intervention initiative that Henrico is doing.
• The researchers also tell Axios they'd like to see more enforcement of vape shops, better education and awareness about the dangers of synthetic cannabinoids, and more research and attention on teen vaping.