Back to school does not just mean bringing your pencils and books, teens say they also bring their vapes.
"Most of the junior class does it," said Kayla, 16.
She is a member of FACT, a Wisconsin youth tobacco prevention program. TODAY'S TMJ4 spoke to four of the teen from the group.
Three out of the four teens said they have seen students at their high school vaping. Two out of the four teens said they had seen 8th graders vaping.
A 19-year-old we are calling Tim said he started vaping without nicotine in his suburban high school. Within months he switched to other things.
"A lot of my friends did it, most of my peers were doing it," said Tim. "You see vapes that you can put THC in, any type of marijuana. You can get vapors that vaporizer the wax form of marijuana."
Area police departments said he is not alone. Basically, anything you can smoke, you can vape. The Waukesha County Sheriff's Office shared a picture of a THC Stealth Stick that was recently confiscated from a school.
Amy Kuechler, a psychologist at Rogers Behavioral Health, who treats teens with addiction said they often don't know what they are taking and share vapes.
"A recent study shows about 14-percent of kids say they have absolutely no idea what they just took a puff on. So that's what I think is the greatest danger. It's being passed around, it's really discreet and nobody really know what they are putting in there," said Kuechler.
Tim said it's easy to conceal especially from parents. He had his drugs in his pockets and he says people can do them out on the streets.
"If I was walking down these streets and I smelled something fruity I would think vape. But if it smelled like pine needles or something really weird then it would definitely be something else," said Tim.
He doesn't think that people who do not do drugs would know.
FACT members say parents likely won't even realize their kids are vaping.
"Parents, if your kids uses USB cords for the computers try to buy them yourself because they look a lot like that. And just happen to look at them if you do see your kid with something like that near a computer," said Lashonda, 15, sophomore.
