INDIANAPOLIS — Health officials say overdoses from vapes laced with fentanyl are uncommon, but that's what Perry Township School officials said happened to a high schooler on Tuesday.
"The incident that happened at Perry Meridian is horrible. As a parent, I have to say I can't even imagine," said World of Vapor owner, Dave Cohn.
The overdose due to a vape laced with fentanyl is raising concerns.
Cohn says there is an age restriction on vapes, and shares what to look for to make sure it's not a black market item.
"You want to look for things with ingredients, labels, security. Something you have to really twist to get open. And you want to buy it from a store and not your buddy in the bathroom. That's the real deal. Educate your kids," said Cohn.
He stresses there are some who will portray the items to be safely sealed.
"That's the problem. They can buy just blank cartridges and fill it themselves is what they do. It's not just kids making it. It's real people with real money behind a black market organization pumping these outs. I've seen it and it's scary," Cohn said. "When you have four states that surround your state that all have legal marijuana and you don't, that's when other organizations target that state and send in counterfeit products."
Eskenazi Health Pulmonary Physician Graham Carlos said doctors are concerned with an increase in teenage and young adult vape use.
"And nicotine is very addictive, and so it's hard to quit. It's also easier to camouflage. When I was in high school, you would get caught smoking in the bathroom because everybody could smell it. But vape pens can often be odorless, and it can be easier to kind of use them and get away with using them more commonly for young adults," said Dr. Carlos.
He said health officials haven't seen incidents like this since 2019.
"People were what's called 'dabbing and danking.' That's when you add things to the pens and there was no regulation," Dr. Carlos said.
It's since calmed down, but he wants the public to be prepared.
"Everybody should know the basics about opiate overdose, what to look out for and how to administer Narcan," he said. "We have all these programs and pushes about Narcan and getting that out into our communities, and just making people aware that it's not just somebody with syringes lying by them who might need a bystander or first responder to administer Narcan."
Dr. Carlos said vaping can have acute or sudden effects and then long term effects depending on what's been added to the vape pen. If something like a synthetic opioid is added, it can quickly compromise lung and cardiac function.
"It can really create health risks. And then more chronically, a lot of people turn to vape pens as a form of to get nicotine that they really think is safer, but modern medicine really isn't sure yet what the long-term effects would be. So, we really try to advise people not to use them and to be really careful with what they might add to them," said Dr. Carlos.
Both Cohn and Dr. Carlos encourage parents to have conversations with their kids.
"The biggest thing I can preach is talk to your kids," said Cohn.
In Indiana, the minimum age to buy or use vaping products, including E-cigarettes and E-liquids is 21.
It's part of the state's Tobacco 21 law that went into effect in 2020.
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