An illicit trade in cannabis and tobacco products targeted to underaged customers in city neighborhoods is getting fresh scrutiny, thanks to a study prepared by a group of Dorchester teens.
Members of the BOLD Teens program, based in Codman Square, warn that messaging apps are filling a void left when retail stores were prohibited from selling flavored tobacco products. Underaged consumers, they say, can easily find their fixes on SnapChat, where an underground marketplace offering flavored nicotine products and cannabis is on offer to city youth.
In doing the research project, which was funded by a grant from the state’s youth anti-tobacco program, BOLD Teens Jamari Hall, Justin Gichuru, Elijah Peters, and Micah Peters canvassed stores in Codman Square under the direction of organizer Cynthia Loesch-Johnson, who runs the neighborhood council.
They set up their own delivery order via SnapChat and quickly learned that underaged smokers and suppliers were using apps and scooter-based deliveries to circumvent the retail bans. They then presented their findings to the Codman Square council in April.
“We decided to contact an individual who was advertising nicotine products and who was posting offers and discounts to their public story,” said Gichuru. “All we had to do was respond to their story and we were able to meet with an individual down the street one day later and obtain these nicotine products.”
The seller, who was also underage, according to the teens, offered a deal: $60 for two cartridges and the promise of other “deep discounts,” including cannabis vapes. While all tobacco and cannabis products are illegal for use to those under 21, the popular flavored tobacco vapes are banned altogether in Massachusetts through a 2020 state law.
“I was a little surprised,” said Hall, “but nowadays it’s more common to see young people here using different products like this. It didn’t shock me, but it was easy.”
The teens turned their purchases over to adults overseeing the program after their experiment.
Loesch-Johnson said the emergence of this unregulated underground market is frustrating. She put the blame on tobacco companies looking to skirt local laws.
“We’ve done such great work over the decades and so many people no longer smoke, but these tobacco companies are so tricky in coming back with this and making these products look sexy,” she said. “You’re always playing keep up with them.”
Nikysha Harding, director of Boston Public Health Commission’s (BPHC) Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, notes that statistics suggest Boston teen vape usage rates are lower than in the rest of the state, and that teens here were slower to pick up on the trend than suburban counterparts. But the online trade is growing locally.
“We are very aware of what is going on out there,” said Harding. “I can attest that online sales of these products and using social media platforms presents a significant challenge to us due to our limited enforcement capacity.”
She added: “I don’t know if we have the answers or the state does, but the big dark web out there allows people to get their hands on a lot of things. It’s not easy.”
Online sales have little or no age verification measures, Harding noted.
“Some places even promote discreet shipping services, saying they will camouflage it as candy, cosmetics, or beauty products. Youth also have become savvy and ship to a CVS locker drop-off. At the end of school, everyone is running to get products out of their locker at CVS that they go back and sell amongst their peers,” she said.
Members of the BOLD Teens say things in the city have been going the wrong direction among their peers in the last few years. “There has been a dramatic increase in the usage with them and we felt they were being targeted in particular,” said Gichuru. “It’s almost exclusively being used by this demographic now.”
Most of the product circulating in Dorchester, the BOLD Teens claim, is coming from out of state, from New Hampshire border towns like Salem, where the flavored products such as Black Cherry, Black Ice, or even Cookies & Cream are legal. Buyers bring them across to Massachusetts where they fan out to sellers on the street using messaging apps.
“A lot of people feel it’s water vapor or flavor,” said Harding. “They don’t understand it is not a safer alternative to using the typical smoking products – especially for youth. Adolescent brains are still developing and using these products can damage their brains. There are 30 chemicals in these products and when they test them side-by-side there isn’t consistency in the product. That scares me…(These companies) are out there trying to find their next population, and this is what it is.”
Gichuru and his fellow BOLD Teens said they want to get the word out on the dangers to youth and to their parents.
“We at the BOLD Teens are not trying to be the fun police,” he said. “But we think if young folks knew the harmful effects of these products, both short-term and long-term, and how they are inviting this addiction into their lives – they might not make the same decision to use them. There are different ways to fit in and deal with stress in your life.”
