Parents in Florida are considering homeschooling their children as fentanyl-laced vapes appear in schools.
Earlier this month, a 15-year-old student in a Volusia County, Florida high school was arrested and charged after he was caught vaping in the bathrooms at Deltona High School.
The vape was confiscated and tested. It turned up positive for fentanyl — a powerful synthetic opioid similar to morphine but 100 times more potent — and THC — the main psychoactive component in marijuana that makes people feel ‘high.’
Parents at the school described the incident as ‘terrifying’ as more and more fentanyl vapes are showing up in schools. It comes amid a school vape epidemic that is expected to get worse as the new school year progresses.
The vape used by a 15-year-old in a Volusia County, Florida high school student was found to contain fentanyl and THC
More than 2.5million US children use e-cigarettes – rising a half-million from last year and reversing downward trends in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 2.55million Americans in middle or high school admit using the device in the past 30 days. It is a jump of 500,000, or 24 percent, from 2021. It is the first increase since the CDC started gathering annual data in 2019
Kelli Ninche, a mother of multiple children in Deltona High School, told Fox 35 News she has been thinking about taking her freshman son out of class and homeschooling him.
But she said: ‘That’s probably not the best thing to do, because that’s the world they have to live in. It’s terrifying, to be honest.’
Ms Ninche speaks to her son regularly about the dangers of vapes, and said: ‘It’s definitely a subject I’m going to touch with him again on tonight, because they might think they’re just doing nicotine and then they have something else in it, like with fentanyl. For me, it’s scary.’
She is also planning to talk to her children in second and fourth grades at the school about vapes too, just in case.
‘Kids nowadays are getting a hold of these things.
‘It’s disappointing because you wonder what’s causing it,’ she said.
A couple of months ago, a 17-year-old student at a school in DeLand, Florida, less than 20 miles from Volusia County, died after overdosing on fentanyl, though not in connection with a vape.
According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, the 15-year-old boy thought he was buying cocaine, but it also contained fentanyl.
Just two milligrams of fentanyl – equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt – can be fatal.
The teen who investigators said sold the boy the drugs was charged with manslaughter at the beginning of the month.
The same suspect is also accused of selling a female student at the DeLand school a contaminated vape, which led her to become unconscious in the school’s bathroom in July.
The Volusia County Sheriff has requested that schools begin to have Narcan on campus — a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
The Volusia County School District said it is installing vape detectors in schools in an effort to dissuade students from bringing in vapes and using them on school grounds.
There is also an anonymous phone line where students can report vaping activity, it added.
Roughly 2.5 million middle and high school students were hooked on e-cigarettes as of late 2022, marking a jump of 500,000, or of 24 percent, from 2021. It is the first increase since 2019.
The vast majority of children, 85 percent, use flavored e-cigarettes that federal regulators have cracked down on in recent years amid concerns manufacturers are purposefully marketing the products to children.
Like cigarettes, an American must be at least 21 to purchase a vape, but many physical retail locations neglect to check ID for customers, allowing children to access the devices. Many also get the device from a friend or family member.
Still, teens are often able to get their hands on flavored vapes, most often disposal devices packed with high concentrations of highly addictive nicotine, thanks to lenient enforcement at retail shops.
As for vapes containing THC, research has found vaping marijuana is actually worse for your health than using traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes.