Vaping Is Down in Salmon. What Do We Do Next?

 There is encouraging news in our 2026 student data.

Past-30-day vaping among Salmon High School students declined from 18% in 2023 to 12% in 2026.

That's worth recognizing.

But good prevention doesn't look at an improving number and declare the problem solved.

Instead, we ask: What's working, and what still needs attention?

Students participating in our conversations have told us vaping doesn't seem as common as it was previously, and some have mentioned existing detection efforts.

We've also identified a specific environmental concern: school bathrooms.

Bathrooms can provide the privacy students legitimately need while also creating areas where groups can gather with limited supervision. That made them a vaping hotspot.

This year, SSAPCO worked with the school to help address the physical environment through redesigned bathroom spaces intended to increase visibility and reduce opportunities for groups to gather and vape while still preserving appropriate privacy.

We won't claim the new design caused the decline in vaping—the remodel is new, while the decline occurred before students began using the redesigned spaces.

Instead, we'll evaluate what happens next.

That's what community prevention should look like:

Identify the problem.
Listen to the people experiencing it.
Use the data.
Try something practical.
Then measure whether it helped.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Evolution of America’s “Fourth Wave” Overdose Crisis

Understanding the Four Waves of the Opioid Crisis: We often hear about the opioid epidemic, but it’s not a single monolithic event – it’s evolved in waves. To set the stage, Wave 1 started in the late 1990s with a surge in prescription opioid use (think OxyContin and Vicodin overprescribing). Wave 2 saw many people transition to heroin around the 2010s as prescriptions became harder to get. Wave 3 hit in the mid-2010s with the emergence of illicit fentanyl , a synthetic opioid vastly more potent than heroin, driving overdose deaths to new peaks. Now, we’re in what experts call the “Fourth Wave” – characterized by polysubstance overdoses, especially fentanyl mixed with other drugs like stimulants (cocaine, methamphetamine) uclahealth.org . This means people aren’t just overdosing on opioids alone; often it’s fentanyl combined with meth or cocaine (sometimes intentionally, sometimes unbeknownst to the user). From 2010 to 2021, the proportion of U.S. overdose deaths involving both f...
Read more

Family Meals, Stronger Teens

Image
  When people think of drug and alcohol prevention, they often imagine big campaigns, public service announcements, or large community events. While these efforts matter, prevention can also begin with something much simpler: sitting down for a family meal. Research has consistently shown that regular family meals reduce the likelihood of teen substance use . According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA, 2020) , teens who have frequent family dinners are less likely to drink alcohol, use marijuana, or smoke compared to peers who rarely eat with their families. Even just three to four shared meals per week can make a measurable difference. Why Family Meals Work Family meals provide much more than food — they create a natural space for communication, connection, and accountability . Sitting down together allows parents to check in on their teen’s life, listen to what’s happening at school, and model healthy habits. Communication : Regular conversation...
Read more

Honoring the Legacy of Red Ribbon Week

 The origins of Red Ribbon Week trace back to 1985, when DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped and killed while fighting drug trafficking in Mexico. His sacrifice galvanized communities across the U.S., leading to the creation of the Red Ribbon Campaign — a grassroots movement for drug prevention. This campaign grew into the largest substance use prevention awareness event in the nation. Each October, schools and communities wear red ribbons to symbolize their commitment to a drug-free future. By honoring Kiki Camarena’s legacy, SSAPCO and the Salmon community reaffirm our commitment to protecting our youth from the harms of substance misuse. Sources: DEA Red Ribbon Campaign (2024). SAMHSA (2022). Prevention Messaging. CADCA (2021). Prevention History and Impact.
Read more