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George Rogers Clark High School’s Drug Free Youth Club, consisting of more than a dozen students and sponsored by Chelsea Mobley, is actively involved with promoting a drug-free lifestyle both at school and throughout the community. 

It has even made the most of technology to promote its cause. 

An anti-vaping video, available on VIMEO, draws awareness to concerns about vaping and its physical and mental effects.

“They originally had written a poem that had won an award in an art contest…in February,” said Kayla Walton, Health Education Planner with the Clark County Health Department. “With some encouragement, they took that poem and turned it into a video.” 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaping – or electronic cigarettes which simulate tobacco smoking – are the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youth. 

While used as an alternative to traditional cigarettes, the organization states its products are nevertheless unsafe, and still contain the highly addictive substance of nicotine. 

“[Vaping] has more nicotine per puff than a cigarette does, so [young people] may not realize how much nicotine they’re taking in,” Walton added. “They’re more likely to become addicted and…dependent on nicotine.” 

Unfortunately, forces such as marketing, the availability of flavored products, social influences and more sometimes influence youth to start or continue vaping. 

The video, which was professionally produced and can be found at https://vimeo.com/982122957?share=copy using the password “vape”, was put together in collaboration with CCHD’s Healthy Clark County Coalition and attempts to address such concerns. 

It features a student in a classroom who – during instruction – asks to leave while showing signs of distress. 

Overlapping the students’ actions, a voiceover – with an image of a separate student and a dark background – makes statements about different flavors for vaping along with symptoms that can result from use. 

Examples include “sore throat sorbet”, “orange soda outburst”, and “strawberry stress.” 

It also shows the negative impacts that peer pressure can create. 

At the end of the video, which lasts just over two minutes, a message is revealed on-screen saying that for free help to quit vaping, they can “start my quit” to 36072. 

While research continues in order to determine the long-term negative impact on vaping, with it being a relatively newer product, Walton hopes that the message will continue reaching others. 

“For parents, I think it’s purely education to know that…this is an issue that’s happening,” she said. “For kids…if they are vaping and they want to quit, there’s resources out there.”