[Loughla]

In 2022, our local health department did a presentation about the wild success of anti-smoking campaigns in the high schools. They just couldn't pat themselves on the back hard enough.

My favorite thing was the interaction between the health department and a local principal, it went something like this:

Health Department representative reading off of a slide: "fewer than 5% of teens reported they had tried a tobacco product last year, with fewer than 1% indicating they had smoked a cigarette. We attribute this to the DARE and Too Good for Drugs campaigns as well as constant outreach from the DoH."

Principal: "we had to install vape detectors in every bathroom stall and then re-install them and hide them when the kids bashed them. We think that about 3/4 of the graduating class vapes."

Health Department: blank stares

There is what seems to be a willful ignorance about this in many professional circles. It's very strange to me.

[sidewndr46]

I went to a university that oddly enough banned smoking specifically. Not tobacco or tobacco use, but smoking. You could do it at some distance from a building, but that was it.

In some classrooms greater than 50% of the male students would have "dip" or other oral tobacco products on their desk during lecture.