Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part feature about underage nicotine use across the Yampa Valley. This story focuses on Routt County, while the Oct. 29 story focused on Moffat County.

In the middle school and high school bathrooms and sports locker rooms at the Hayden school complex, vaping sensors are installed to alert Principal Lanc Sellden of students using e-cigarettes.

The sensor notice that pops up on Sellden’s computer combined with hallway video monitoring leads to students having conversations with the principal about the dangers of nicotine and the school leadership’s higher expectations of students.

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“We had two students very specifically last year who said, ‘I want to quit, but I can’t on my own,'” said Sellden, who connects students to school counselors and nicotine-cessation resources.

Statistics from the 2023 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey show underage nicotine use across Colorado is gradually declining compared to the 2021 and 2019 surveys, but the rates across the Yampa Valley remain higher than state averages.

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The statewide survey includes data from the three school districts in Routt County showing that middle and high school student use of a tobacco product has dropped from 42.2% reported in the 2019 survey, to 29.7% in 2021, to 27.5% in 2023, noted Routt County Community Health Specialist Cecelia Vann.

In Routt the rate of underage tobacco use is roughly double the statewide average including e-cigarettes use or vaping at 14% compared to 8.7% statewide and 7.1% of Routt youth smoking cigarettes compared to 3.1% statewide, Vann reported. For smokeless tobacco, 6.4% of Routt youth use it, compared to 1.2% statewide.

Among high school students who purchased vapes in a store in Routt, 86.2% said they were not refused for being underage, according to the 2023 survey, and 56% of Routt high school students believe it would be easy or very easy to get a vape if they wanted.

Employees at several Steamboat stores countered that they always ID customers, and multiple stores have an electronic cash register system that requires scanning the barcode on the back of a Colorado driver’s license before sales.

“Yes, you can say you are carding minors, but I know so many people personally who walked in and got a vape uncarded,” said high school senior Makena James, part of Steamboat Springs Teen Council. “Carding does happen, but evidently it’s not strong enough by the insane amount of prevalence in our community.”

Students and experts say the prevalence of underage nicotine use is largely due to ease of accessibility and concealability along with other factors such as some lax attitudes by parents and older adults and widespread industry and retail marketing.

Vann noted that Routt County has 34 state-licensed tobacco retailers, 22 of which are in Steamboat. For example, one smoker store in Steamboat sells about 10 brands of vapes in about 100 overall flavors.

“Less than three-fourths of our tobacco retailers in Routt County have received sale-to-minor checks from the state in the past year,” Vann reported.

Vann leads a new Routt County Tobacco Coalition with partnering agencies. Steamboat Springs High School continues to advertise for a substance abuse prevention coordinator to fill a three-year grant-funded position that has been posted since June.

The list of reasons why underage users can access tobacco or nicotine products is long, such as: sharing of vapes within friend or family groups, older teens handing down or selling vapes to younger teens, older teens with convincing fake IDs and relative ease of purchase from the internet.

“Early initiation and frequency of use are definitely big concerns right now for our youth in Routt County and nationally. Big tobacco companies have been targeting youth for years with fun fruity flavors, bright colored vapes and social media marketing. Flavors make nicotine use seem less harmful and more fun, and once youth try the products, it is extremely easy to become addicted because of the high concentrations of nicotine.”
 

Routt County Community Health Specialist Cecelia Vann

Principal Sellden noted the use of Zyn brand nicotine pouches “blew up and kind of took over at the end of last year” because the packets are small, easily hidden and not noticeable inside a teen’s lips.

The use by minors of highly addictive nicotine remains a considerable concern for teen health, so a wide variety of youth-led councils, nonprofit organizations, school leaders and education agencies are working together to fight the problem.

On-the-ground work is helping teens make better choices through the efforts of organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Colorado and Partners for Youth and its teen action councils. Boys and Girls Club staff in Steamboat and Craig begin teaching to middle schoolers in September the “You and Me, Together Vape-Free” curriculum from Stanford Medicine Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, funded through a grant.

The Steamboat club this fall started free Community High School Programs with rotating activities from casino nights to movie nights 7-10 p.m. Fridays and open gym 5-8 p.m. Saturdays.

“I know giving kids alternatives and options helps kids learn they don’t need substances to have a great time,” said Dana Duran, the club’s executive director. “Seeing that kids are trying substances earlier is concerning. We know the more we delay experimentation, the less likely people are to become addicted later in life.”

Peer-to-peer support and accurate information through youth action councils in Steamboat, Hayden and Craig are helping by hosting clean and sober activities that offer teens healthy activity options.

The statewide nonprofit Rise Above Colorado provides positive norming statistical information through social media messaging to show youth the majority of their peers are not using nicotine.

The combined efforts are making a difference with more teens reporting awareness of how to receive help, accurate information and mental health resources, said Kent MacLennan, executive director at Rise Above Colorado. He noted a positive point from a limited size, random sampling survey of Yampa Valley youth ages 12 to 17 this spring that showed 93% say they would be comfortable telling a close friend “no” if offered a vape.

“The data shows that a significant majority of Colorado youth are not using vaping products, though we must remain vigilant and give youth the knowledge and skills to make healthy choices, especially our youngest adolescents,” MacLennan said. “Some of the concerning trends are really around that 12- to 13-age population statewide with more lax attitudes toward substance use and increased curiosity.”

Vann said youth surveys show an increase in the percentage of students who think people who vape regularly have a moderate or great risk of harm.

Duran noted the key to helping youth make the best choices is “great programs, caring adults, safe places and showing kids they can be themselves.”