Vaping = Sex – Drugs and Rolling With the Wrong Crowd – Apparently!
An expert in adolescent criminal behaviour says you’d better slap that vape out of your kid’s hand unless you want him or her to embark on a life of drug-fueled crime…
And nope I haven’t lost my mind – yet – but I’m close to it after reading yet another couple of spurious studies into vaping, one of which suggests kids that vape are probably little sexual deviants…
Holy Christ, sometimes I despair lol.
Only yesterday I rebutted [again] claims that vaping ‘may’ have effects on the health of your heart – and today it’s a study that suggests young people that vape will have a ‘higher propensity for crime‘… *sighs*
Given the current war on vaping over in the states, it does seem pretty coincidental the two main battlefronts – banning flavours and the alleged teen vape epidemic – have conveniently been handed supposed scientific proof, on a plate, by eager to please scientists…
Add to that a study last month that claimed kids that vape are more likely to have:
engagement in sexual risk behaviours
And Bingo! A trio of anti-teen vape messages that really will have those prohibitionists rubbing their hands with glee.
I’ll leave the sex study until later, so first let’s look at the link between young people vaping and how it turns them into crazed criminals…allegedly…
This time it comes from a study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice titled: It’s all the rage! Exploring the nuances in the link between vaping and adolescent delinquency…these guys really need to work on their titles…
The authour is Dylan Jackson, a criminal justice professor from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and he says kids aged between the ages of 13 to 16-years-old that vape, are more likely to become drug addicts and criminals…yes really.
However, his findings state that kids vaping on marijuana are far more likely to become young hoodlums than those vaping on nicotine-based e-liquids…every cloud and all that. In other words, that young vaping dope fiend is likely to ‘cut you’ whilst the young dude vaping on strawberry cheesecake flavour with 20mg nicotine, will probably just egg your house…maybe I’ve oversimplified a little…me? Naw surely not 😉
Kids That Vape Are More Likely To Be Violent Thieving Criminals!
OK putting my serious hat on for a moment…
Jackson used data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, a kind of think tank that monitors drink and drug trends among the youth of America.
The full study, updated a few days ago, has, thanks to the anti-vape hungry media, received widespread attention in America – pretty sure it’ll hit the UK newspapers soon. And as are most of these ‘lofty tomes’, it’s hidden behind a paywall. However, the gist is out in the wild for all to see…a case of pay me if you want to drill down into the nitty-gritty.
The key points from his findings are that kids vaping on e-liquid or cannabis are more inclined to acts of:
- violent delinquency including fighting at school, engaging in a gang fight, causing injury to another or carrying a weapon to school
- property delinquency such as stealing an item or damaging school property
- “Other” types of delinquency such as trespassing or running away from home
- Some combination of the behaviours mentioned above
A press release states:
…adolescents who vape are at an elevated risk of engaging in criminal activities such as violence and property theft.
He [Jackson] also found that teens who vape marijuana are at a significantly higher risk of violent and property offenses than youth who ingest marijuana through traditional means.
Now I take issue with that last statement. According to the NHS, the side-effects of marijuana include:
- you may feel chilled out, relaxed and happy
- some people get the giggles or become more talkative
- hunger pangs (“the munchies”) are common
- colours may look more intense and music may sound better
- time may feel like it’s slowing down
Hardly the ‘mood’ to get you into criminality, apart of course from the act of buying and using the device and material…plus recent reports show that use of cannabis in a vape device tends to amplify those effects.
Now I’m not saying kids under the age of 18 should be using cannabis – especially if it’s illegal in your country or state. What I am saying use of cannabis has never to my knowledge been linked with crime, violent or otherwise – except of course via dealers and suppliers…users not so much if at all.
So surely that kid having a toot or two on a vaporizer is far less likely to become ‘criminally minded’ given the side-effects? Once again I’m NOT condoning youngsters vaping or smoking cannabis…just making a point. Another point is, and without looking at the full evidence, are these kids vaping on leaf/resin OR CBD? It’s an important distinction given the THC is removed from the latter…
Anyway back to this study.
Jackson sums it by saying:
Our hope is that this research will lead to the recognition among policymakers, practitioners, and parents that the growing trend of adolescent vaping is not simply “unhealthy” – or worse, an innocuous pastime – but that it may, in fact, be a red flag or an early marker of risk pertaining to violence, property offending, and other acts of misconduct.
Not one mention about kids that smoke lit tobacco, which seems to be the usual course of action for these studies.
In my day it was the kids that smoked who were more likely to be rebels and troublemakers…James Dean anyone?
Without an expert looking at the full study into the link between criminality and vaping among the kids of America, I can’t scientifically rebuff this one. But after reading so many [so many lol] of these anti-vape research papers I’ve got a smell for ones that are easily challenged…in this case, I’m pretty sure it’ll be scientifically rebuffed sometime soon.
Kids That Vape Are Probably Sexual Deviants Too…
I know I shouldn’t laugh or use the phrase ‘horny teenager‘ in what is a serious look at a couple of serious scientific studies, but this one made me chuckle – blame my propensity to smutty 8-year-old boy humour.
This one comes from the 2017 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and once again given the media’s persistent anti-vape rhetoric, it’s reared its head again.
According to the study the kids of America that vape are far more likely to engage in what they describe as ‘risky sexual behaviours’…no clarification as to what that means but I’m guessing under-age sex of any kind.
Andrew Adesman MD the senior researcher of the study said:
Vaping has reached epidemic proportions among U.S. youth.
Our study not only expanded upon previous studies examining teen vaping and drug use, but we also investigated novel associations between vaping and various sexual risk behaviors.
In this analysis of a nationally representative sample of U.S. teens, we found that vaping was associated with engagement in sexual risk behaviors such as early sexual debut and alcohol use before sex.
Wow kids that vape are more likely to drink and have sex? Imagine my surprise…
I go back to that ‘horny teenager’ analogy – I seem to remember my hormones were going haywire during adolescence and whilst I smoked a little and had the odd shandy, I don’t think I was anymore ‘horny’ than the average teenage boy.
And given vaping was a mere twinkle in Hon Lik’s eye, I’m bloody glad I wasn’t vaping as that would have just added to my already out of control hormonic urges!
Anyway enough about my teenage libido lol, the men in white coats also reckon it doesn’t matter if you vape one puff a month or 200 a day if you’re an American teen that vapes you are most definitely a sex addict:
We found that vaping was associated with a wide variety of substance-use risk behaviors, ranging from prescription pain medicine misuse to binge drinking.
Somewhat surprisingly, for the majority of substance-use risk behaviors examined, we found no difference in the likelihood of engagement in these behaviors when comparing teens who vaped occasionally, frequently or daily.
Although vaping was strongly associated with many substance-use and sexual risk behaviors, we were surprised that, in general, teens who vape only occasionally were no less likely to engage in these risk behaviors than teens who vape frequently.
Initiatives to reduce youth substance use and youth engagement in risky sexual behaviors should include efforts to reduce teen vaping at all frequency levels.
Listen guys teens from time in immemorial have engaged in so-called risky behaviours – sex, drugs, smoking and yeah even rock and roll, and way way before vaping came along.
Linking vaping to teen crime, drug and alcohol use and sexual ‘deviancy’ is just silly, simple as that.
Kids are going to rebel, kids are going to experiment and seek rites of passage and will continue to do so even in these nanny states we live in.
Scientists should, of course, look at the pros and cons of vaping, but adding to the already anti-vape hysteria levels is helping no one – I mean let’s face it when the average teenager is told NO…they tend to give it ago anyway.
Education not legislation is what’s required AND fair and balanced education at that and not this epidemic of scare stories sending everyone into melt-down.
