A couple weeks ago I was walking down the English hallway when suddenly I noticed a suspicious trail of smoke behind the student in front of me. KHS is a smoke-free campus, so my first thought was, “How can this guy be nonchalantly smoking in the middle of the hallway with teachers lurking everywhere?” But then he turned around and I saw what was not an ordinary cigarette, but an e-cigarette.

E-cigarettes are electronic smoking devices that contain flavored vapor with different concentrations of nicotine as an alternative to smoking tobacco. E-cigarettes were created to help smokers beat their addiction with a safer alternative, but according to the FDA, research has not conclusively proven if e-cigs actually help smokers quit.

Lately I’ve noticed students smoking e-cigarettes who have never smoked tobacco in the first place. My hope is that e-cigarettes aren’t becoming a fad teenagers want to participate in because it’s “safe.” E-cigs still can cause cancer according to American Cancer Society. There are 25 states that ban the sale of e-cigs to minors, but there are almost no bans on sales through the Internet, which makes them quite appealing to teenagers and easy to obtain. If they still contain cancer-causing substances they shouldn’t be available to all ages.

I particularly question why KHS doesn’t enforce rules against e-cigarettes in the building while administration tries so hard to discourage any kind of drug use whatsoever. If a student uses e-cigarettes as a way to stop smoking, they still don’t need to use their e-cigarettes at school. It’s quite distracting to see plumes of vapor which look practically identical to actual smoke in the halls and even in classrooms. It’s a disturbing sight to see a 16-year-old act like they’re smoking a real cigarette at school with an e-cig. E-cigarettes should be treated like regular cigarettes, kept outside and off campus.