In Emerson and bordering towns, there is a deadly addiction occurring: an easier, stealthier way to smoke weed. A new alternative to the straight weed plant are dab pens. Dab pens contain THC oil, which is an ingredient in the marijuana plant to get the user “high”. As readers are all aware, smoking weed leaves a foul and strong odor. With the new pens, it is easier to get away with smoking the illegal substance. In the pen, it is not the actual plant because it leaves no odor. It’s an artificial weed oil. These pens contain this oil which is the concentrated THC, making it stronger. 

Teens are highly addicted to this product because they like the high and the no-fuss process that comes with the pen. Teens bring them to parties and school, which spreads the addiction. Trying it once at a party and enjoying it leads to going out “fiending” off of others, which leads students to buy their own pen. Upon interviewing some of the students that are unfortunately addicted to the product, some horrible answers were explained. 

“I can’t eat without being high, it’s like I have no appetite without being high.” This was a scary response. Think about what would happen if this user wasn’t high for a whole week? What would happen to their health? 

It’s so hard to stop this addiction as well. The way to buy this product is so easy that it’s hard to stop. The parts you buy are a battery and carts. The battery is a one time buy, and it’s the device you use to smoke the oil. The carts are what you buy after they are done, and need to be refilled. The carts contain the oil and the cost ranges from how “good” it is. They can range from $20-$60. Depending on the local seller, aka the “plug”, it all depends on what kind of carts they have and how high they’ll get users. Because of the accessibility of the pens, some students come to school high. Some students can’t go through the day without hitting a dab pen to stay focused or relaxed. 

The most pressing problem of these pens are the effects that they have on the health of users. The pen has sickened at least 805 people and killed 13. Teens are seeing the news and how these devices and carts are killing people, but some don’t seem to care. It doesn’t faze them at all. People have been dying and no one cares and people keep using the pens.  

Overall, teens are getting hooked to this deadly and sickening device just to get high. While the long-term effects are currently unknown, the short-term effects alone should be enough to deter teens from becoming a victim to the dab pens.