With just the click of a button and a few hits, weed pens can be used to get high at any time or place. Different from traditional forms of marijuana, they are portable, rechargeable and produce only a muted smell. With the legality in neighboring states and loopholes regarding specific compounds, these devices have become widely accessible from a drive to Mass St. or a walk to the bathroom.
Over a third of high schoolers report using marijuana in their lifetime according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Amidst these numbers, it is challenging to graduate high school without exposure to marijuana.
School Resource Officer Kacey Wiltz said she works with a small percentage of students who have been caught with pens or vapes on school campus. She said that the peer pressure to perform to standards can change a student’s life.
“It’s hard for some students who may succumb to peer pressure. It has a huge impact on the student body because everybody here has access to it,” Wiltz said. “It’s just a matter of can they say ‘No.’”
According to anonymous students “Bill Christopher” and “Sally Williams,” using vapeable marijuana pens is common throughout the student body and the faint smell is even recognizable in the school bathrooms.
For underage students, pens are easily obtainable from peers and many find known places in town where purchases can be completed.
“There’s such a wide population of students at the school who do it,” Christopher said. “It’s really easy for someone just to ask their friend and get a pen.”
Over the summer, Williams purchased their first pen and now relies on using it daily, blaming convenience as part of the reason for their dependency. They said heavy usage of the pen has caused effects like feeling fuzzy and forgetful. Despite feeling the negative effects, the student said a culture controlled by weed would be hard to resist post-graduation in college, leaving them to stick with the habit.
“Do I want to be addicted to weed for this whole year that I have left in high school or should I stop now and be addicted in college?” Williams said.
Furthermore, Christopher personally believes growing up in a college town has increased their exposure to party culture and drug usage at a young age. In contempt of the effects and regulations, they said using marijuana has alternately given them and their peers an outlet that isn’t as harmful as alcohol.
“All my friends who do smoke have a way of doing it casually and constructively and use it as a nice outlet to have fun and relax a little bit,” Christopher said. “They use pens without being insanely destructive to themselves or anything like that.”
For some students, dealing with the many stressors of school and outside life has led them to rely on the drug as a coping mechanism. Even with the harmful long-term effects, Christopher and Williams both believe that the use of the drug is useful to cope with short-term stressors.
“School is stressful and with the pen, you can just not be as stressed and it’s so convenient,” Williams said. “If I have a hard day, I’m excited to hit my pen.”
However, according to Wiltz, students should be wary of the long-lasting effects that pens can have, not only on their physical health but also on their mental health. The use of marijuana has been linked to depression, social anxiety and suicidal thoughts, per the CDC.
“Students say that the pen stops their mind from thinking about [stress]. However, there are legal ways to do that,” Wiltz said.
Wiltz stresses the need for a comprehensive approach when dealing with students who have been using marijuana, which includes education, counseling support and addressing the underlying issues that lead to drug use.
“You can go buy drugs on that street. You can go buy drugs from your friends. It’s an easy outlet,” Wiltz said. “Other outlets might be a little bit harder, but they are safer, healthier and keep you learning and on track.”
