Tobacco Use Prevention Education (TUPE)

TUPE: Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program

The purpose of the TUPE program is to reduce youth tobacco use by helping young people make healthful tobacco-related decisions through tobacco-specific, research-validated educational instruction and activities that build knowledge as well as social skills and youth development assets.

While the primary focus of the program is tobacco prevention, including e-cigarettes/vape pens, our strategies are comprehensive and include information on alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Students are also building a wide variety of important and relevant skills including communication, planning, public speaking, and decision making.

What OGSD Does - Our Comprehensive Program
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QUICK FACTS ON YOUTH AND TOBACCO USE

• Tobacco product use is started and established primarily during adolescence.
• Each day in the U.S. about 2,000 youth under 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette and more than 300 youth under 18 years of age become daily cigarette smokers.
• Flavorings in tobacco products can make them more appealing to youth.
• In 2014, 73% of high school students and 56% of middle school students who used tobacco products in the past 30 days reported using a flavored tobacco product during that time.
• Recent increases in the use of e-cigarettes is driving increases in tobacco product use among youth.
• The number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose from 2.1 million in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018—a difference of about 1.5 million youth.

For more information, please click here to visit the webpage for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Smoking & Tobacco Use.

The conversation can start at home:

• California Smokers' HelpLine: Free services for teens and adults, including self-help materials and one-on-one counseling. Services are available in multiple languages.
• English: 1-800-NO BUTTS (1-800-662-8887) | Spanish: 1-800-45 NO FUME (1-800-456-6386)
• Chew Tobacco: 1-800-844-CHEW (1-800-844-2439)
• SmokeFree.gov Smart Phone Apps: NCI QuitPal, QuitSTART, QuitGuide
Parents and other adults looking to help young people quit should text "QUIT" to (202) 899-7550.

Tobacco-Free California