[00:00:08] Jake White: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Party Talk podcast where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention. And I’m so excited about today. I get to talk with Addison or Addy, a student, a college student out of California, who is doing great work. And I found her because she wrote an article on vaping. So, Addy, will you just give us your good old college intro and tell us a little bit about yourself?

[00:00:26] Addison Whiten: Yes, for sure. I’m Addison Whiten. I actually just graduated this weekend from Pepperdine University, in Malibu, California. I’m a journalism major, film studies minor. And I’m from the Dallas Texas area.

[00:00:42] Jake White: For those of you who haven’t heard or read Addy’s article yet, I’ll be posting a link when we publish it on the blog. So you can read up but just give us an overview of what your project was or what you wrote about?

[00:00:57] Addison Whiten: So, at Pepperdine, we have our newspaper, the graphic, and then we have a magazine currents. And that comes out every semester. And so this was a piece I did for the spring 2023 currents, which was super awesome. There’s a few big pieces in every magazine. And I was very fortunate to get to write one this semester. And so the editor of the semester’s magazine, Lydia, she had a master list of stories she wanted to do. And one of them was about vaping, she didn’t really know, where she wanted to take it. But she wanted to do some cultural piece about vaping. And nobody wanted to write it. And I was like, that sounds interesting, I can do something with that for sure. And so I took it on, and I got to shape it. And I eventually landed on wanting to talk about the negative aspects of vaping. Because I think it’s something that culturally young people know. There’s negative things, but they don’t have the hard data, have access to actual information about it, outside of just I know, so and so vapes all the time, and they get sick easier, they have a cough, people know the qualitative things about vaping, and why it might hurt you or hurt your life. But they don’t really understand the reasoning behind that. And so I thought it would be really interesting to like, actually get experts on the record to talk about it. Because even I was interested. I don’t actually know, the true science behind this. So it was interesting to get real data and be able to do that. That was the way I took it and wanted to shape it. And I think I was able to get that in the end.

“Vaping’s Alarming Impact: Insights from Addison Whiten’s Investigation on the E-cigarette Industry and Its Youth Appeal”

[00:02:26] Jake White: As you were going on this journey and studying all of this stuff. I’m curious, was there any friends who were uncomfortable because maybe they were vaping?

[00:02:37] Addison Whiten: Yes, I have a lot more friends, I would say at home in Texas who are regular vape users than in California, which I think it’s because at Pepperdine, it’s a Christian school, it’s a little less that environment. Not that it doesn’t happen there. But it definitely happens way less than, when I’m at home in the middle of nowhere, Texas, there’s not really much going on. People pick up all kinds of habits. So my high school friends definitely were more interested in it at the personal level of like, this is something I do or that a lot of our friends do. So it’s more interesting to know that and I think again, it was things they probably knew. But it’s harder to look away from an expert saying this is what’s happening, or this is what could happen to you? That’s a little more of a wake up call than another person your age who doesn’t really know being like, I’m sure this is bad for you. But hearing it from an expert, I definitely gets more jarring.

[00:03:27] Jake White: Where does your research take you as far as did you get to meet anybody that you wouldn’t have got to meet? Or did you dive into research? That was interesting. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

[00:03:40] Addison Whiten: I definitely think the most unexpected and interesting part of putting the article together was I put a lot of feelers out for different interviews. And I was like, my dream would be to get someone from truth to talk to me from that nonprofits very well known. Everyone my age knows those commercials. That’s just something that would resonate with people, with audience. I’m trying to reach. And I reached out to them, I thought it was a total, shot in the dark. And then three days later, they were like, we would love to meet with you about this, here’s someone who could talk to you. And so that was really cool. And then that interview was very productive. I got probably my best data, best information, all of that from the interview. And what surprised me about that was again, it was things I already intuitively knew about, how vaping got popular because I was a teenager as vaping was getting popular. I was there, I remember, but it was really powerful to have an expert be like, “Yes, this is what happened, what you experienced.” Every high schooler in America was experiencing learning about particularly the way jewel entered the market as a product and changed everything. I think that was really interesting to me, because again, I remember all of a sudden everyone had one, it was like, “Where did this come from?” And hearing an expert explain how that happened from that knowledgeable point of view, and comparing it to my own experience was really cool.

[00:04:58] Jake White: That would be so fascinating to take something, you’re observing and living through, and then seeing the data. I’m, excited for you and the experience that you got. Some of the things that your article pulled up. So some of the things that I’ll just read off, and if there’s anything that you want to add in there, that was interesting, feel free to jump right in. But it’s the first one, it was almost 80% of 18 to 29 year olds in America vape. And another one was, which is funny to me now seeing the data that has come out in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. It’s close to that now. Middle school students are vaping. And then high school is upwards of 20%. So as the stuff is trending, and I know, with COVID, some people are leery about the data. Is it the best source now since COVID disrupted everything? Or is it different, but I tried to stay at least close to them, if I can. And so learning that age demographic 18 to 29 year olds, I didn’t know this one. So you cited statistic. And check this out. This is along, that e cigarette industry made $22.8 billion globally, in 2022. In just one year. So $22 billion, almost 23 billion, that’s insane.

[00:06:38] Addison Whiten: I know. That one really got me because for the years of 2020 to 2022 in particular. I feel like even though I knew people who vaped before COVID and continued through COVID, I assumed there maybe would be some drop, because you have a respiratory pandemic, you think people might take a step back. But that data in that context specifically really shocked me because it just kept growing and is projected to continue to grow. And like you were saying with youth numbers, I think a lot of that is driven by younger and younger people getting into vaping, imitating older kids, you know, and it continues in that way.

“Evolving Vaping Trends and Social Dynamics”

[00:07:15] Jake White:  Yes, exactly. And you talked about that in your article, too, is how the vaping industry was specifically targeting young people. Can you tell us more about that?

[00:07:24] Addison Whiten: Yes, that was another really interesting part of all of this that I learned because again, it was something I experienced firsthand. But explaining why it was so attractive to people my age, when I was in high school, was interesting. A lot of it is marketing, really smart marketing. There was really attractive flavors. I know, I had friends in high school who we’re habitual vape users, who had three or four go to flavors that they would like, and it became like a thing to have flavor you liked. And so I think a lot of that drives a lot of it. And obviously there have been certain laws and things past, targeting the marketing, targeting the flavors, trying to make it less attractive. But once you’ve done it long enough, it’s not about the attractiveness of it. It’s now you’re addicted to it. So it doesn’t matter. But the ways it targets young people, I think, generally revolves around the marketing and then also around like social currency. If six kids at your high school are doing this now and the kids you think are cool, or they’re in your friend group, now you’re going to have too because you’re like, Well, I got to keep up. So I think that it’s smart in the way that it markets to people. And then it knows once it hits at least a small amount of kids in a certain area or group, it’s going to take hold on more, just because that’s the way social hierarchies work. In high school especially, it’s everyone has to get in on the same thing.

[00:08:44] Jake White: Yes. And it’s human nature. We’re not the most predatorial species. So since the beginning of humans, we have to group together to survive. The more social power you have, the more influence, the more protection, the more safety. And so it’s like, built into us that there’s people around us doing it. Let’s fit in. And in case something is dangerous, as wreaking havoc on your lungs with vaping. And nowadays with students using THC cannabis products in their vapes. It’s really scary. One of the things I want to expand on, that you touched on just now is that when students know, it could potentially do this to me, that’s like one strike against vaping and then but my friends are all doing, so it’s like one Pro, and they’re not necessarily made equal. It’s not one versus one, because I know that potential long term risks but term like I want to have friends, I want to feel good and fit in. So it’s almost like it’s a weightier decision metric with our program with vive18, and party point0, by providing these basically giant parties without any drugs or alcohol, it’s a way to show students, they don’t need to use it to fit in and have fun. But also, it’s not enough just to tell them, it’s like, alright, well, let me invite you to an event. So you can be a part of it. And I think that’s what’s so cool. And why I wanted to talk to you because, being the young adult, a college student, seeing this is, you have this near peer power, you’re close in age, I look young, but I can still get away with it. But I’m getting up there. So I was just so impressed that you were writing about something that my field is really passionate about, you’re doing lots of great research, and you’re writing to took a stance, saying, this is harmful, this is dangerous, it’s still out there. And it could continue to grow. Unless we see something different happening.

[00:10:58] Addison Whiten: Yes, definitely. I think that was my main goal with this, it’s obviously like, a news piece. And you can’t outright, or say a certain opinion or whatever. But it’s like, clearly the data points at a certain direction that just is factual, this is bad for you. And I think that something I wish I could have expanded upon more, but it’s hard because there’s not great data behind it. Because vaping is so new, is like that social aspect, I would love for when the day comes, where we can get data behind the way social things drive vaping other than qualitative, just firsthand, assuming which is right. But there’s no data behind it. So for now, what we have is data on nicotine and data on incidences of illness in young people and things like that. And even that data is not great, because it’s vaping is still so new in this population. So I think that it’ll be interesting, as time goes on, to have more research professionally done and more data to draw on and look at, I think, obviously, it’s sad that there will be enough time passed, and enough people doing it that there will be data, but there will be and so I think eventually, even better article could be written with actual, good, really strong data. And I look forward to when that is available to us.

[00:12:11] Jake White: Yes, I agree with you, it’d be cool to have one specifically, with vaping, or nicotine and those group settings, I actually came across this study, and I have to find it and try to cite it. But it was interesting, it was talking about the groupthink mentality, and how this one person would go into a room. And they were surrounded by actors and actresses. And they were asked questions, and you raise your hand, you think it’s right or wrong. They have one person, the person who’s not acting the subject. And so they’re answering questions. And they would change it where the audience would go along with them saying it’s right. And they’ll get that’s easy, because I said it’s right. And everyone else thinks it’s right. They would do it, continue doing it. But more people would say that, they would raise their hand picking the wrong answer. If it would sway that person. They did it with like factual things. You are like, No, you can’t possibly get this wrong. Even emotional things. That’s actually a terrible thing. Should we punish this person or cause them harm? And if there was more people in the room saying, “Yes, we should”, then that person was more likely to say, yes, we should. They previously hadn’t said that. So, I agree with you. There’s plenty of studies out there and very interesting things about humans, and about our social interactions and how we’re swayed. But one that would be specific to this epidemic. And like you said, unfortunately, might become worse before it gets better. My hope is, since we dealt with this one with big tobacco and cigarettes. Hopefully, the timeline, less lives will be lost before we correct this curve and can learn a lesson but with humans, who knows?

[00:14:10] Addison Whiten: Yes, it is hard to know. I interviewed for the article, a high schooler who was my little sister’s in high school. So this is a good friend of hers. And it was interesting to hear their perspective, based on like I was in high school five years ago now, the last time I was in high school. So it’s been a while since I was in that environment. So I was interested to get a check on where are things now? What is it really like? And it does seem like at least from their perspective, at this one high school, it seems like it is less about the social thing now and more about just people been doing it for so long. It’s something they do now. And so I do think it is interesting to hear from them that it’s not as attractive to other high schoolers if they weren’t already doing it in middle school or whatever. It was really big. So I do think that’s interesting, at least from one perspective to hear someone be like, I know plenty of people who do it, and they all have just done it for years. And they just do it now, but I’ve never had an interest. I think that’s interesting, because even when I was in high school, I was not like a vapor all the time, but I definitely had used one before because it was like, well, we’re at this party that we’re all here, everyone’s doing it, it’s just the thing. And I feel like hearing from them now that they’re like, I have no interest in that. And I don’t feel pressured that is interesting. I do think maybe slowly over time, that aspect of it, maybe will get better. But unfortunately, there are those people who did start when they were in like, sixth or seventh grade. And now they’re seniors, and they’re addicted to nicotine. And it’s just something they do now.

“Uncovering the Harsh Reality of Vaping”

[00:15:37] Jake White: And they’ll be like how to do it, the withdrawals and things that make it really difficult to quit. When you’re a kid, you are looking at adults, you look at them, and maybe they smoke cigarettes, maybe they vape or they use marijuana, and most of the time, not all the time. But most of the time, if you ask a cigarette smoker, they have tried quitting at some point. Want to quit or if you talk to them, like I spend so much money, I’m always need to go outside, in the cold and smoke. I wish I didn’t have to do this. But the fight against withdrawals and against nicotine addiction is so daunting. And it’s holding them captive. It’s super sad that something like that could start in middle school. And now since doing speaking engagements at schools all over. I’m learning it’s starting fourth and fifth grade as well. One school actually said they had a second grader, get a vaping device confiscated from them. It’s wild. Is there anything else that you came across that we didn’t talk about that you’d like to share just on what was interesting, or what research you learned?

[00:16:56] Addison Whiten: I do think the statistic about the amount of nicotine and vapes is really compelling. That, again, was something I’ve heard forever, these have so much more nicotine than cigarettes. But when you’re 17, you’re like, that means nothing to me. I have no concept of what that means. So that was interesting, again, to have that confirmed by someone who knows that, there’s five times or there’s as much nicotine in a jewel pod, as in like a whole pack of cigarettes. And so you blow through a jewel pod in probably a day or two, if you’re someone who really vapes a lot. And so that’s crazy. You might blow through multiple every couple of days. And so that amount of nicotine in your system is like, unprecedented, especially when you’re so young and developing. And so that was really interesting to me, because as far as medical professionals can be sure of right now. That’s the root of a lot of the health concerns with vaping, is that volume of nicotine in a young person system. And so Megan Jacobs, from truth, who I interviewed, she put it in really good terms of like, even in the 60s, when kids were smoking cigarettes like crazy. They weren’t smoking a pack a day, but kids now are vaping the equivalent of a pack a day of nicotine. And so to me, that was the most in your face crazy statistic to learn. Because even as far as I knew, I didn’t know it was that crazy. And so that maybe was the biggest shock of everything I learned was just that is really hard to deny, provable data about why this is so toxic, especially to young bodies. And that was really like compelling information, and especially in terms of comparing it to the cigarette epidemic in the mid century, it just wasn’t even that bad, then.

[00:18:43] Jake White: Well, that’s incredible. Addy, thank you for taking some time to just chat with me about it. And I know this is going to encourage a lot of people hearing about your research and your article. And personally what you learned and took away from it. Because we all have a reach, every single person has a reach of people that they influence and the fact that you’re not doing that and that you’re educated on it, is going to make a difference in the people around you. So thanks for writing that and for taking the time to chat with me today.

[00:19:12] Addison Whiten: Of course, thank you so much for having me. This was awesome.

[00:19:16] Jake White: There you have it everyone another episode of Party Talk where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention. You heard from Addy. Again, she’s looking for jobs. So if you’ve got something in marketing, communications, hit her up.