FIU psychologists Elisa Trucco and Matthew Sutherland are educating students, school personnel and parents about the potential harms associated with vaping nicotine and THC, the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis.
In efforts to reduce teen e-cigarette use, Trucco and Sutherland have partnered with more than 14 schools and reached out to more than 2,000 members in the South Florida community to provide educational sessions on vaping. They currently run a research project called the Antecedents and Consequences of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ACE) Project, funded by the National Institutes of Health. It is part of a collaborative study between FIU’s Center for Children and Families and FIU’s Research Center in Minority Institutionsto better understand what influences a teen’s decision to use or not use e-cigarettes, and how this decision could impact the developing brain. The project is one of the first studies to examine decision-making as it relates to vaping devices. Read more at FIU News.