The fear-mongering stories surrounding e-cigarettes are astonishing both in their numbers and the naivety of the claims they put forward. Do you know you’re sucking on a toxic cocktail of anti-freeze and carbon monoxide that will ultimately lead to an addiction to hard drugs. It must be so, an eminent scientist has irrefutable evidence that says so. It makes me wonder why anyone would consider switching to e-cigs at all.
On top that, governments are losing out big time on tobacco taxes, tobacco companies’ profits are taking a tanking and pharmaceutical companies are witnessing an abandonment of gum and patches for an unregulated upstart.
What Did The tobacco Industry Ever Do For Us?
Over the years the tobacco giants have caused the deaths of billions. If cancer doesn’t get you, chronic illness, debilitating disease and poor quality of life will. Once you are hooked on those little white sticks it’s difficult to go back. In essence, what the tobacco companies succeeded in doing was getting smokers addicted to nicotine. Smokers are aware of the damage that the TAR, chemicals, carcinogens and carbon monoxide in every puff is doing to their bodies. Yet, the craving for nicotine is so strong that common sense fails to prevail.
There is nothing good you can say about tobacco products or tobacco companies. So it’s understandable when a new nicotine delivery system hits the market that parallels are drawn with analogue cigarettes of old. The result, an outpouring of negative messages which regularly include this chestnut: ‘e-cigs are gateway to other more harmful substances’.
The Gateway Effect
I have never quite understood the Gateway Effect. Wikipedia describe it thus:
The gateway drug theory (also called gateway theory, gateway hypothesis and gateway effect) states that the use of less deleterious drugs can lead to a future risk of using more dangerous hard drugs or crime. It is often attributed to the earlier use of one of several licit substances, including tobacco or alcohol.
So how does this actually happen? After 6 months or a year vaping does your nicotine craving somehow change to a craving for illicit drugs. According to Wikipedia the theory is based on observation i.e. consumers who use substance A or B have previously used substance C..
Imagine you were stranded on deserted island with a lifelong supply of e-cigarettes. How would the gateway theory work then? The simple fact is it wouldn’t. Not because living on a deserted island in some way alters our physiology, but because the two true contributors to why people dabble in illicit substances have been removed. Peer pressure and availability.
The Real Gateway Effect
The vaping fraternity is changing entire economies. At any other time this would only be a major problem, however, during times of austerity it a catastrophe. One 10 bottle of e-liquid is equivalent to around 200 cigarettes. That’s ten 20 packs that tobacco companies will never see profit on. At today’s tax levels one 10ml bottle costs the UK government £61.70 in lost revenue. I don’t know how this equates to gum, patches and sprays, but my guess is that the pharmaceuticals are hurting big time as well.
With all this hurt going around it’s hardly surprising that negative stories are going to emerge. This, in my opinion, is the real gateway effect. Puffing on e-liquid won’t magically push you into a hard drug habit. It will, however, lead to unethical marketing strategies and negative propaganda designed to protect economies, especially those of the tobacco companies.
On top that, governments are losing out big time on tobacco taxes, tobacco companies’ profits are taking a tanking and pharmaceutical companies are witnessing an abandonment of gum and patches for an unregulated upstart.
What Did The tobacco Industry Ever Do For Us?
Over the years the tobacco giants have caused the deaths of billions. If cancer doesn’t get you, chronic illness, debilitating disease and poor quality of life will. Once you are hooked on those little white sticks it’s difficult to go back. In essence, what the tobacco companies succeeded in doing was getting smokers addicted to nicotine. Smokers are aware of the damage that the TAR, chemicals, carcinogens and carbon monoxide in every puff is doing to their bodies. Yet, the craving for nicotine is so strong that common sense fails to prevail.
There is nothing good you can say about tobacco products or tobacco companies. So it’s understandable when a new nicotine delivery system hits the market that parallels are drawn with analogue cigarettes of old. The result, an outpouring of negative messages which regularly include this chestnut: ‘e-cigs are gateway to other more harmful substances’.
The Gateway Effect
I have never quite understood the Gateway Effect. Wikipedia describe it thus:
The gateway drug theory (also called gateway theory, gateway hypothesis and gateway effect) states that the use of less deleterious drugs can lead to a future risk of using more dangerous hard drugs or crime. It is often attributed to the earlier use of one of several licit substances, including tobacco or alcohol.
So how does this actually happen? After 6 months or a year vaping does your nicotine craving somehow change to a craving for illicit drugs. According to Wikipedia the theory is based on observation i.e. consumers who use substance A or B have previously used substance C..
Imagine you were stranded on deserted island with a lifelong supply of e-cigarettes. How would the gateway theory work then? The simple fact is it wouldn’t. Not because living on a deserted island in some way alters our physiology, but because the two true contributors to why people dabble in illicit substances have been removed. Peer pressure and availability.
The Real Gateway Effect
The vaping fraternity is changing entire economies. At any other time this would only be a major problem, however, during times of austerity it a catastrophe. One 10 bottle of e-liquid is equivalent to around 200 cigarettes. That’s ten 20 packs that tobacco companies will never see profit on. At today’s tax levels one 10ml bottle costs the UK government £61.70 in lost revenue. I don’t know how this equates to gum, patches and sprays, but my guess is that the pharmaceuticals are hurting big time as well.
With all this hurt going around it’s hardly surprising that negative stories are going to emerge. This, in my opinion, is the real gateway effect. Puffing on e-liquid won’t magically push you into a hard drug habit. It will, however, lead to unethical marketing strategies and negative propaganda designed to protect economies, especially those of the tobacco companies.
