Remember the “epidemic” of underage nicotine vaping? For years, activists, politicians, and public health officials have been warning that a surge in e-cigarette use by teenagers would hook a generation of young people on nicotine and encourage them to smoke.
That never happened, as new federal survey data confirm. But policies adopted in response to that overblown threat continue to undermine the harm-reducing potential of vaping products by making them less attractive to current and former smokers.
According to the latest National Youth Tobacco Survey, which is overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 10 percent of high school students reported past-month e-cigarette use in 2023, down from 14 percent last year and more than 27 percent in 2019. Among middle school students, the 2023 rate was 4.6 percent, less than half the 2019 rate.
How many of those past-month vapers might reasonably be described as addicted to nicotine? A quarter of them—less than 2 percent of all respondents—reported vaping every day in the previous month, meaning that, as usual, the vast majority were occasional users.
This does not look like an epidemic of nicotine addiction. Nor did the fear that vaping would lead to smoking pan out.
Hellbound and Down 