Minnesota Survey: One in Five High School Students Use E-Cigarettes

The 2020 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey also showed that 70% of middle and high school students who use e-cigarettes displayed signs of nicotine dependence. The survey was conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health to provide information about youth use of commercial tobacco and to help design and evaluate prevention efforts.

According to the new data, 19% of high school students and 3% of middle school students are current e-cigarette users, while 34% of high school students and 8% of middle school students said they had used e-cigarettes at some point. Compared with 2017, this was not a statistically significant increase.

The data showed that four out of five Minnesota students reported that the first tobacco product they tried was flavored. Overall tobacco use among high school and middle school students who had used tobacco products in the past 30 days declined to 20.5% and 4.1%, respectively, compared with 26.4% and 5.2% in 2017.

Meanwhile, last December, the federal government raised the legal tobacco age from 18 to 21. In response, Minnesota lawmakers hoped that implementing the same law statewide would eliminate confusion among retailers, said Laura Smith, senior public affairs manager at ClearWay Minnesota, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing tobacco use. The Tobacco 21 law was passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Tim Walz last May, bringing Minnesota state law into line with federal and local tobacco laws.

Senator Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, who has long advocated raising the age limit, said the main goal of the new legislation is to prevent young people from vaping and from developing nicotine addiction afterward. In fact, research shows that younger brains are more susceptible to addiction.