> You are partially responsible for this. Why is it the first response to blame everyone else but it is never the fault of those who are on the front lines (teachers, parents, people in the community)?
The article explicitly discusses how easy it is for teenagers to vape in secret, without parents or teachers knowing. "Matt" in the article was able to keep it a secret from his parents for two years. When his parents found out, they absolutely did talk to him. But he was already an addict.
> having any tobacco / nicotine products on school grounds is quite illegal for both students and faculty : with fines and possible jail time
I don't know where you live, but this certainlky isn't true everywhere. Smoking generally isn't allowed in school buildings anymore (possibly there may be a few schools with old-school faculty smoking lounges, I don't know), but many or most places allow faculty to smoke outside.
This of course ignores the problem with vaping anyway - it's much harder to detect. There's no smoke smell, and vapers often believe they have a right to vape anywhere and everywhere, because "it's not smoke." This is certainly true for kids in school. The article even mentions how the teenagers were avoiding being caught. What are you going to do, strip search every day?
> E-cigarettes have helped quite a few people I know stop smoking
That's great. That doesn't excuse their easy availability and the clear marketing toward children. That's how the media and government need to be held accountable.
> there are much more dire issues in many communities that need to be addressed (maybe the opioid and Heroin epidemic?).
That there are more dire issues doesn't mean we can't tackle less dire ones. The real tragedy is if the government had been on the ball, this would have never been a problem in the first place. E-cigs should have been much more heavily restricted, no flavorings allowed, etc., then people could have still quit smoking and we wouldn't have a teenage nicotine addiction epidemic. As it is, e-cigs have been sold as something basically completely safe and fun, and consequently millions of children are now addicts.
Also, from the article:
> “Nicotine may disrupt the formation of circuits in the brain that control attention and learning,” said Dr. Rachel Boykan, a clinical associate professor of pediatrics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and an executive member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ section on tobacco control. “And there is a higher risk of them subsequently becoming tobacco smokers.”
E-cigarettes helped your friends stop smoking. Great! But apparently they're helping other people start.