Teenagers Using E-Cigarettes To Get High

CARROLLTON, Ky. —Electronic cigarettes are used to help tobacco users quit smoking, but local authorities said some are using them as a disguise for drugs.

E-cigarettes are composed of water vapor, flavoring and nicotine, but some are packing them with heroin and marijuana.

“What they do is they take marijuana, then take the THC out of it, put it in wax form, stick it in an e-cig, which heats it up, melts it, and you smoke it just like an e-cig, but you get the high off the marijuana,” said Carrollton police Officer Tim Gividen.

The marijuana is undetected by sight and smell.

“You’re not going to get the marijuana smell off the smoke, because it is going to be disguised with flavoring,” said Gividen.

Gividen patrols schools in Carroll County.

It was when he confiscated an e-cigarette from a student at Carroll County High School and started asking questions that he learned of the growing trend.

“I said, ‘So why do these kids have these e-cigs, what is going on?’ He said they use it for waxing. I’m like, ‘Waxing, what is that? I’ve never heard of that.'”

He found out it’s an issue across the country — more popular on the West Coast, but it’s recently reached Kentucky.

https://www.wlky.com/news/teenagers-using-ecigarettes-to-get-high/30567364