Discussions on how to deal with vaping in high schools continue to percolate among city and school officials in light of an increase in police citations for minors in possession of tobacco and vaping products.
Last week, Anchorage School District Superintendent Deena Bishop denounced criminalizing youths for vaping. She’s seen a stark rise in vaping among Anchorage high schoolers, but also said it’s not her place to tell police how to enforce the law.
“I would say certainly we partner with APD and it’s a case-by-case basis," Bishop said. "If they have evidence to lead them to give a citation, we would never impede that.”
On Thursday, Bishop sent a letter to the Assembly and Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, praising the passage of Tobacco 21. The policy, passed in July, raised the purchase age of tobacco and vaping products to 21 while removing penalties for possession of such products by minors.
Bishop had recently come from an American Heart Association conference that looked into how nicotine companies target vaping at children. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called it an epidemic, she said.
A CDC doctor explained that advertising to children is like drawing a horse to water. The flavors get the horse to drink, and the nicotine keeps them coming back.
“Our goal is to not criminalize our youth, rather to empower them,” Bishop wrote in her letter.
Citations for vaping have increased dramatically. Data from the Anchorage Police Department shows 15 minors cited for possession in 2017, eight in 2018 and 82 so far in 2019. No one at APD was available Monday for an interview, but Anchorage Assemblywoman Suzanne LaFrance said Chief Justin Doll told her the increase was connected to a rise in complaints from school personnel of students vaping.
"My understanding is the spike in the numbers is because of more calls from the school district,” LaFrance said.
Bishop said that’s a likely scenario.
“Principals could open up a drawer in their desk, and you could see hundreds, thousands of dollars of vaping and e-cigarette paraphernalia," she said.
Tobacco 21 was based on advice from public health experts, including from the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society. The intent was to shift the blame from minors to the tobacco industry, which is believed to be targeting minors with candy-like flavors. Bishop said that holds true in Anchorage public schools.
“In this case, the flavors — cotton candy, green apple, popcorn — all that stuff is highly attractive to young people,” she said.
Local police have continued to cite minors under state code, which includes a $500 penalty and a court appearance. Nearly half of the 2019 citations came after the Assembly intentionally removed the penalty from local code.
In general, the increase in citations appears to parallel an increase in vaping among teens. The CDC released a preliminary report in September showing 27.5 percent of high school students surveyed nationwide reported vaping in the past 30 days.
LaFrance brought up the issue Friday at a joint meeting of the Assembly and school board. In an interview, she said Doll told her his officers are obligated to enforce the state code.
“That’s APD’s position," she said. "That surprised me. I would have thought they had more discretion on that.”
That stance runs contrary to a statement APD spokesman MJ Thim issued to the Daily News, saying police use discretion in enforcing the law.
LaFrance said she’s still trying to figure out how to get everyone on the same page, whether it’s drafting a resolution for the Legislature to amend state code, or adjusting local code to include a low-level penalty like an educational class.
“We need to make sure that we’re all working off of the same sheet of music,” she said.