Among people who started using a new drug in 2024, nicotine vaping was the top choice in the U.S.. “It beat alcohol for the first time,” says Dr. A. Eden Evins, director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Kids are initiating it at younger and younger ages.” It’s a worrying trend: of the 1.63 million middle and high school students who use e-cigarettes, which have several negative health effects, one in four do so daily. “Kids told us they never expected to lose control over their vaping,” she says. To provide pediatricians and school counselors with an evidence-backed solution to the growing addiction problem, she tested varenicline, a tobacco cessation pill for adults, in this new population. A study published in JAMA in April 2025 of 300 adolescents found varenicline was a more effective quitting aid for vaping teens than a placebo or behavioral interventions alone. Her team is beginning a larger study to test varenicline across other nicotine products, including nicotine pouches.
