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Teenagers are drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarettes and trying fewer hard drugs, new federal survey data shows. But these public health gains have been offset by a sharp increase in vaping of marijuana and nicotine. These diverging trend lines, published Wednesday, are among the findings in the Monitoring the Future survey — a closely watched annual study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, of eighth, 10th and 12th graders. The survey shows that youth drug use and experimentation continue to undergo significant evolution. (Richtel, 12/18)

About 1 out of 5 high school students in the U.S. say they vaped marijuana in the past year, and its popularity has been booming faster than nicotine vaping, according to a report released Wednesday. “The speed at which kids are taking up this behavior is very worrisome,” said Dr. Nora Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the federal agency that pays for the large annual teen survey. (12/18)

“Any marijuana use among kids is a bad idea,” said Neal Benowitz, a clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco who studies vaping. “From my perspective, marijuana use is much more hazardous” than tobacco or nicotine use. He noted research that has shown marijuana’s impact on memory and learning, traffic accidents and, among some heavy users, the onset of psychosis, as well as the risk of contaminants in black-market products. (Bernstein, 12/18)

Concerns about the rapid rise of youth vaping, particularly nicotine vaping, has spurred bans and regulation across the country, including a proposal to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 years old in a year-end congressional spending bill. But an increasing number of adolescents are also vaping marijuana oils, specifically THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. The overall percentage of middle-school and high-school students who said that they had tried vaping THC increased 32% from 2017 to 2018, an increase of roughly one million students, said Daisy Dai, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and author of the second report, which used data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey. (Abbott, 12/18)

Stanton Glantz, a tobacco control expert at the University of California San Francisco who was not involved in the study, said kids who try vaping nicotine are more prone to vaping THC or smoking cigarettes. "It's like the Bermuda Triangle of substance abuse. There's good research out there showing any kid who does any of those is more likely to do the other ones," Glantz said in a phone interview. (12/18)

In a yearly poll of U.S. high school students, 14% of 12th-graders acknowledged they had used an e-cigarette to “vape” marijuana at least once in the past month. That’s nearly double the figure from the year before, when 7.5% of high school seniors said they had vaped marijuana in the past 30 days. In the 44 years that 12th-graders have shared details of their tobacco, drug and alcohol use with public health researchers, only one substance has taken hold more quickly: The share of high school seniors who had used an e-cigarette to inhale nicotine in the previous month jumped from 11% in 2017 to nearly 21% in 2018. (Healy, 12/17)

Volkow said there are several policy changes that could help to curb youth vaping, including restricting e-cigarette sales to anyone under age 21 and hitting retailers who sell to underage customers with hefty fines. She also said that taxing vaping products in the same way traditional cigarettes are taxed could make a significant impact. “If we can make vaping devices more expensive, you will see a reduction of vaping among teenagers,” Volkow said. (Thielking, 12/18)

Federal officials are still looking into the causes of vaping-related deaths around the country, but in New Hampshire, schools are continuing to see a surge in teenage vaping. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a quarter of high schoolers here are vaping at least occasionally. (Gibson, 12/17)

U.S. health officials on Tuesday endorsed a type of cigarette that could help ease the addictive grip of smoking by delivering very low levels of nicotine. The Food and Drug Administration will allow 22nd Century Group to begin selling the first low-nicotine cigarettes reviewed by federal health regulators. The products contain roughly 95% less nicotine than standard cigarettes, according to the FDA. (12/17)

The nicotine formula used by controversial e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc is nearly identical to the flavor and addictive profile of Altria Group Inc's highly successful Marlboro cigarette brand, new research suggests. A study released on Tuesday from researchers at Portland State University in Oregon helps to explain why a growing number of young people who never smoked cigarettes have become regular users of Juul vaping devices. (12/17)

The products differ from conventional cigarettes in nicotine content only, FDA said. Cigarettes can still cause cancer, lung disease and a number of other health problems. The agency emphasized that there are no safe tobacco products, and those who do not use tobacco products should not start. (Weixel, 12/17)

Kaiser Health News: Don’t Toss That E-Cig: Vaping Waste Is A Whole New Headache For Schools And Cities

In her office at Boulder High School, the assistant principal has a large cardboard box where she can toss the spoils of her ongoing battle with the newest student addiction. “This is what I call the box of death,” said Kristen Lewis. “This is everything that we’ve confiscated.” The box is filled with vape pens like Juuls, the leading brand of e-cigarettes, dozens of disposable pods for nicotine liquid, and even a lonely box of Marlboros. (Daley, 12/18)

San Francisco Unified School District and four other Bay Area school districts have joined a growing number of school districts around the country in suing Juul, seeking unspecified damages allegedly incurred by schools seeking to stop students from vaping. San Francisco Unified filed its complaint Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. One of the attorneys leading the case is former San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne, a vocal Juul critic who supported the Board of Supervisors’ recent legislation banning the sale of vaping products in the city. (Ho, 12/17)