Michelle Minton on twitter recently posted a really great tweet and Christine’s reply is spot on. This is the real tragedy and absolutely speaks to WHY youths are seeing out substances in the first place. It’s the same reason why I ( a 42 year old guy ) sought out “legal for me substances” to cope with my stress and anxiety.

Young people in 2020 are part of a crazy social media internet world that I couldn’t imagine dealing with at 12 or 13 years old. I remember 7th grade, it sucks man. It’s also when I first smoked weed, first smoked cigarettes and first drank alcohol, and I didn’t have the non-stop internet popularity contest of Instagram or Facebook to deal with.

I feel like nobody remembers what it’s like to be a 7th grader. “Youths” right now are getting a crash course in life, dealing with things that WE NEVER HAD TO. The world is just a fundamentally different place now than it was when I was in the 7th grade in 1993. #slackergeneration

Youths are coping with an increasingly difficult life. In 2019 news media outlets everywhere including The New York Times reported on youth suicide rates going up 56% between 2007 and 2014.

Suicide is, and has been more prevalent than homicide in and ( like cigarette smoking ) disproportionately effects LGBTQ , veterans and people of color.

Yet Bloomberg, Matt Meyers, countless governors and even THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION would have you believe that nicotine vapes are the clear and immediate danger to our nations young people.

That seems….

Irresponsible, disingenuous and just plain wrong to me. How on earth are youths going to cope, if all we do to “help them” is make goofy anti vaping internet memes?

Makes me honestly kinda sick

-Grimm