I took a trip to a local mall this morning, and I was outside for a few hours just walking around. During the trip, I must've seen approximately 100 people puffing on analogs, and besides myself, I did not see one single person vaping. Not on a cig-alike, not on an ego, not on a mod, not on anything.
I know that vaping is more popular than ever before, but I sure wouldn't know that just by walking around outside. I vape just as if I were smoking an analog, which means very often, and when I'm walking around outside, I am often vaping. I wonder where all of the vape people are. Are they all hiding inside?
I'm not going to judge anybody who still uses cancer sticks, because I used to be one of those people not that long ago, but I feel that the vaping industry should do a better job of advertising how much better vaping is than smoking analogs in every single way.
NYC does not have a vape culture ala SoCal. We didn't have our first vapeshop until two years ago or so and even now there's maybe about ten or twelve in a city of 8 million plus. I don't know what the reason is for this tbh, but i doubt that it has much to do with the attitude of our local government.
There is some misinformation out there for sure re it's relative safety vs. cigarettes, but the majority of smokers i have spoken with acknowledge that it's safer than smoking. I have tried to convert many people and at least a dozen or so have tried and not one has stuck with it. Most common reason is that it just doesn't give them the same 'satisfaction' that cigarettes do. Now there are a few who will use cig-a-likes in addition to smoking cigarettes but very few could be bothered with buying mods and clearos and eliquid and heads etc... nevermind building your own coils and dry-burning and re-wicking ....
I think another reason might be that they think carrying a large mod around is douchey ( i swear i have been told this by more than one person ). Someone even told me it's one of those California new agey mumbo jumbo trends. I have even got some stick from some of my own friends and acquaintances ( especially when i carried a vamo around ).
I think there will be an upsurge of users if a system as easy as a cig-a-like comes along with the power and efficiency of the more involved systems we use though.
P.s. after years of decline in the number of smokers in the city, there was an uptick from 2010 to 2013. 14 % of adults in 2010, 16 % in 2013. Still lower than the national average but still significant that the trend reversed.
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