GRAYSON COUNTY, Texas (KXII) - According to the FDA, 3 million middle and high school students used tobacco products in 2022, the most common was vapes.
While they are becoming more common, they are also becoming harder to spot. Pen Hookah
Smokin’ Vapes Owner, Casey McKinley, is warning against a new type of vape on the market.
It appears to be a highlighter, a pencil bag essential. However, underneath the marker-like packaging is actually a vape.
“Teachers and parents could easily look past these types of products and have kids out there getting habits that they shouldn’t be forming that early in life,” McKinley said.
How it works is the fake marker tip can be removed revealing the piece that vapor can be inhaled from. On the bottom is a fake lid, when it is taken off it reveals a place to be charged.
On the packaging, it has phrases like the flavor of the vape disguised as the color of the marker. It also has the words ‘High Light’ across the front but has no mention of it being a vape.
“They try to play it off innocently like it’s just a new innovative product on the market, but everybody there pretty much knows what the goal there is,” McKinley said.
The Denison ISD Director of Security, Michael DeHaven, said these under-cover vapes are not new for local campuses.
“Some of the pens that we’ve seen in Denison are highlighter pens, actual ink pens that you would write with magic markers, dry erase markers,” DeHaven said.
DeHaven said it is crucial for schools and parents to be alert that these devices come in all shapes and sizes.
Denison ISD has installed vape sensors in bathrooms and hallways to help fight the vape crisis.
“There’s a sensor in it that absorbs up the cloud that is exhaled or the scent of the vape itself and the chemicals that are blown out and it alerts our devices and then we can respond to it,” DeHaven said.
DeHaven said in Texas vaping is now a mandatory placement in an alternative school. If the vape contains THC it’s a felony.
McKinley said his shop will not carry disguised vapes but worries other shops will. With back-to-school season starting, now is the time for parents to be on the lookout.
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