MOULTRIE, Ga. – When e-cigarettes made a splash a few years ago, they were marketed as a safer way to get a nicotine fix.

The smoking of water vapor — “vaping” — usually with nicotine added and the option of various flavorings is now a hit among teen-agers.

Among Colquitt County school students, for example, the number who reported vaping on an annual health survey more than doubled from 2017 to 2018.

And the recent arrests of a Moultrie vape store owner and an employee, along with complaints in the community, have led Moultrie City Council to put regulating the stores on the front burner.

Police said that illegal substances showed up in products purchased at the Doc Darbyshire Road Southern Vapes during a nearly one-year undercover buy operation.

“I don’t know a whole lot about it,” Moultrie Mayor Bill McIntosh said. “It was just brought up the other night that there were some issues that needed to be dealt with. It’s been brought up that it’s a popular thing with young people.”

Among the county’s students in grades 6 through 12, 305 reported in the 2018 Georgia Department of Education health survey that they had used a vaporizer at least once in the previous 30 days, with 55 reporting daily use.

That’s up from 144 who reported vaping in the 2017 survey, with 10 of those reporting using the products daily.

In 2018 the largest group, at 75, was 10th graders, while 55 were in ninth grade and 33 in the eighth grade. Eight students in sixth grade and 16 in seventh grade reported using the products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and other “electronic nicotine delivery systems” that contain nicotine, prohibit selling them to anyone under 18.

In the arrests of  Southern Vapes owner Danny Riggins and James Riley Lewis made on Feb. 13, police said the vaping oil purchased was made from the hemp plant. Products made using hemp, often referred to as cannabis or CBD oil, include lotions, gummy bears and vaping oils that like their nicotine counterparts can contain flavoring.

Those products are widely available everywhere and can be purchased legally.

Some of the samples purchased at Southern Vapes contained suspected illegal substances, said Sgt. Justin Lindsay of the Moultrie-Colquitt Drug Enforcement Team, and one contained suspected fentanyl.

Riggins, 44, 4136 Hwy. 319 N., Norman Park, and Lewis, 22, 4833 Bear Creek Road, Norman Park, were each charged with one count sale of a controlled substance. Both were released on bonds of $5,000.

Neither man has a prior criminal record in Colquitt County or with the Georgia Department of Corrections.

In August 2018 suspected fentanyl was found in a vial labeled as “natural CBD oil,” being sold at a convenience store in Brandon, Miss. The vial was in a sealed package.

According to the CBDOilRelief.net web site, there have been multiple complaints about that brand from users who said it made them “high.”

That was the same issue that drug agents in Colquitt County investigated in relation to the Moultrie business.

“It started in 2017 with a complaint that items were being sold there described as items that were getting people high,” Sgt. Justin Lindsay said. “An investigation started with undercover buys taking place.”

When tests indicated there were illegal substances in the oils “a search warrant was executed,” Lindsay said. “Items were taken from the site and submitted to the crime lab for other tests.”

The CBD oil itself is legal, he said, and that is what undercover buyers requested.

In terms of nicotine vape oils, they do pose a danger for younger users, said Ebonee Kirkwood, chronic disease prevention program manager with the Georgia Department of Public Health Southwest Health District.

“For individuals under the age of 25, e-cigarettes are positively harmful for them because of the nicotine,” she said. “Their brains are still developing and exposure to nicotine makes them more susceptible to addiction.”

There also is concern that children and younger adults could be exposed to other dangers as well as the dangers of exposure to second-hand vapor the user breathes out.

“There are many other chemicals in these e-cigarettes, some of which we know about, some of which we don’t.”

People may have the belief that vaping is more healthy than smoking, Kirkwood said, but that has not been proven. That belief may be one of the things that attract younger users.

Excluding vaping, tobacco use among Colquitt County students measured in the health report, both smoking and smokeless tobacco products, smoking also increased from 2017 to 2018. But it was nowhere near the rate of increase seen in vaping.

“E-liquids come in hundreds of flavors,” Kirkwood said. “Those flavors are attractive to youth. They start using out of curiosity (and) also the belief that it’s less harmful than traditional tobacco products.”

For those 13 and older who want to stop using tobacco in whatever form, there is the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line, she said, at 1 (877) 270-7867. The hotline offers a number of strategies and services to help quitters succeed.

Another option is the BecomeAnEX phone app.

For Moultrie officials, the issues being raised were enough to get their attention and look at addressing, the mayor said.

“We’re just concerned,” McIntosh said. “We just need to look at this. If it needs some local regulation, we certainly want to provide that. We just want to be proactive and head off any problems that may come up.”