State and local numbers indicate teen nicotine use is down, but students and school resource officers in Colorado Springs are saying they are seeing an increased usage in schools — particularly when it comes to discrete vaping devices.

Self-reported statistics show teen nicotine use is down from 40 years ago before cigarettes had a negative connotation to them, according to officials from the Colorado Department of Public Health.

The decrease is cause for excitement for Nick Torres, advocacy director for the American Lung Association.

“It’s definitely something to celebrate that youth nicotine addiction has come down since the overwhelming highs that we saw during the youth vaping epidemic,” Torres said. “What we would say is they’re still too high and we see over a million young people still regularly using nicotine products.”

Statistics at the national and state level do not exactly jive with on the ground observation, local authorities say.

Colorado Springs Police Department’s School Resource Officer Lieutenant Kevin Miyakusu oversees all three sergeants and 23 officers actively working throughout the 17 school districts in the Pikes Peak region. Miyakusu says officers from each school confiscate at least one vaping device a week from students, if not more.

“It is a huge issue in schools,” Miyakusu said. “There’s been an increase, it’s kind of the new cigarettes.”

SROS can search student bags with probable cause, such as fighting or an allegation of a threat. Miyakusu says when these searches happen, officers often find vaping devices either on the students or in their backpack.

“They come in all shapes and sizes, and you could even have it hidden in plain sight if you didn’t know what you were looking for,” Miyakusu said, talking about vapes that look like ordinary pens or highlighters.

Torres said that “we have to be vigilant” as the industry is always adapting new products and always adapting their marketing tactics.

Even discrete marijuana THC vaping devices are being found, nearly as consistently as nicotine vapes are, according to SROS in schools. Although nicotine vapes typically are only confiscated, when a THC product is found, that student either receives a court summons or school disciplinary action.

If the student is under the age of 18, upon conviction of a first offense of possession, the court can sentence the underage person to a fine of not more than $100, or courts can order the underage person to complete a substance abuse education program, or both.

Some students say they are seeing an increase in both nicotine and THC devices and want to bring it to law enforcement’s attention.

The police department organizes a Chief ’s Youth Advisory Council, which gives young people the chance to discuss their thoughts and concerns directly with Police Chief Adrian Vasquez. The council is composed of high school students who meet with Vasquez for two hours monthly.

One student who was on the board last year, said he hopes to talk more about the issue of vaping in schools this upcoming semester.

“One thing that I want to advise the chief on and make him more aware of is the amount of vapes and drugs that are used in schools on a daily basis,” Ayush Vispute, a sophomore at Rampart High School, said. “When you walk into a school bathroom, there’s often just a horde of people vaping, and that’s something that’s inherently a problem.”

Vispute is also a member of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council, where he said several other members also say vaping in schools is one of their major concerns.

State and local statistics

According to officials with the El Paso County Public Health Department, statewide in Colorado teen vaping is down by over 15% when comparing 2023 to 2019. Nationally, use among middle and high school students has declined from 7.7% of students in 2023 to 5.9% in 2024, the lowest level in a decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“From a statewide perspective, in 2019 about 46% of high school students reported that they have used an electronic vapor product,” Jennifer Lange with the public health department said. “So, in comparison, in 2023 that rate has declined to 30% so which is obviously a huge decline over four years.”

Lange said that teen nicotine usage hit an all-time high in the state of Colorado in 2015, at slightly over 46% of teens using it. By 2019, that number had been practically flat, at just under 46%.

In 2023, even with the number decreasing to 30%, Lange says youth vaping is still very prevalent and still of concern.

“We know on a short-term basis, the use of nicotine affects the underage, developing brain because it disrupts the portion of the brain that controls learning,” Lange said. “The earlier a person starts using nicotine, it makes them more susceptible to addiction across the board. Nicotine is also known to intensify symptoms of depression and anxiety.”

A former student who attended Liberty High School spoke with The Gazette about their journey with vaping and how it has affected them, especially when trying to quit. They asked to remain anonymous since they are still under the legal age to buy vape products.

The current 20-year-old said they started vaping socially when they were around 16. They said it started because their friend group was doing other drugs, and while they did not want to take part, they wanted to fit in.

Later, when their mother passed away, vaping gave them “a sense of relief from the stress that surrounded and still surrounds everyday life.

“If someone would have told me when I was 16 that quitting nicotine would be this difficult and make me feel so terrible, I probably wouldn’t have picked one up,” they said in an email to The Gazette.

Accessing vaping through theft

Torres said that although it is safe to say vaping rates are down in Colorado, there are certain areas of the state that use is “much higher” than others, such as Pueblo and areas across the Western Slope.

Many of the vaping products on the market are being sold illegally, he said.

“These products have not been on the market with authorization, so it’s accurate to say that they’re on the market illegally,” Torres said. “The FDA has not chosen to pursue many enforcement actions against the manufacturers or the retailers who are selling these products illegally, and that’s something that’s really frustrating from the public health community.”

According to PIO Caitlin Ford with the Colorado Springs Police Department, many of these juveniles are accessing vaping products and devices through theft.

“Whether they themselves burglarize a business or they are sold the products by another individual who stole them from a business,” Ford said.

This year, Colorado Springs has seen a significant increase in “smash and grabs” attacking vape shops, stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise.

But according to the 2023 Healthy Kids Colorado survey, nearly half of Colorado high school students said it’s easy to get vaping devices without resorting to theft. Approximately 84.9% of high school students who tried to buy tobacco products in a store said they were not refused because of their age.

School districts receive prevention grants

Although SRO’S intervene when they see vaping on school grounds, faculty and other staff are also involved.

“Really, the schools find them more than we do, like the security guards and teachers and administrators,” Miyakusu said. “Then, of course, they confiscate them.”

Several Pikes Peak Region school districts received grants this year to combat the issue.

Iin July, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the distribution of $17.4 million to 42 schools, governmental entities, and nonprofit organizations to combat the youth vaping crisis. These funds come directly from the attorney general’s multimillion-dollar settlement with e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs, Inc.

The funds are intended to support programs focused on education, prevention, and treatment of youth vaping, which may include mental and behavioral health services.

Harrison School District 2 was one of several regional recipients of a grant from the Juul settlement directly intended to be used for combat substance use, particularly focusing on vaping. The school districts included in the settlement are Atlas Prep, District 49, Fountain 8, Colorado Military Academy and D-2 which received the largest grant out of the five.

“Students moved from cigarettes, which became less socially acceptable and less accessible to utilizing other forms of nicotine,” D-2 mental health coordinator Jamie Montoya-de Smidt said. “Yes, vaping is one of those forms, but we also saw an increase, especially in rural areas, where chewing tobacco is more socially acceptable.”

As Juul disappeared off the market through the lawsuit that resulted in five local school districts receiving grants, other companies rose up in its place.

“We didn’t actually deal with the problem of vaping,” Montoya-de Smidt said.

Although D-2 already has some measures in place to prevent vaping, including special smoke detectors in school bathrooms — they are not foolproof.

“By the time the detector goes off the student has already left, so how do you catch the student that was using the device?” Montoya-de Smidt said. “If you have 20 students that came out of the bathroom all at the same time, you could assume all of them were using it, but we don’t know that.”

Montoya-de Smidt told the Gazette the $258,000 D-2 received would be spent on educating both students and their families about nicotine use, including the use of discreet devices and the health risks that come along with vaping.

The district also plans to establish student-led prevention teams and provide training on how to have tough conversations between students about vaping.