So, I've started to think about this stuff, wavering between prudence and fatalism. The fatalist side is pretty strong: If I couldn't vape, I wouldn't start smoking again. Even indulging in the occasional pack would be unlikely, since I am not mobile enough to get to the store to buy them. I'd just do without, and without much suffering. The argument for prudence has its own power, though: I truly enjoy vaping and if there's even a small chance that nicotine will help ward off some of the depredations of MS, I want to keep putting it into my system. The upshot is that, just in case prudence outweighs fatalism, I'm trying to figure out what I need to stockpile.
The first step is to try to predict how I long I'll be vaping. Will I vape till I die? When is that going to happen? Unanswerable questions, obviously. If I stockpile enough to last me twenty years, that will take me to eighty-one. That seems good enough, especially since I predict I'll vape less as I get more decrepit.
So, liquid nicotine and even possibly VG and PG for twenty years. Done. Not cheap, but done.
Now comes the thorny problem of what to do about hardware. How long can I reasonably expect the mods I currently have to last? Will the ones I sock away be okay gathering dust for decades? Who knows?
As for tanks and coils, try as I might, I don't see myself building, even with prebuilt coils. My hands are already clumsy and they are going to get worse. Even if I could manage simple builds now, that is not going to last. So that means a supply of tanks with drop-in coils. How long will, for example, an Innokin Zenith last? My setups are not exposed to a lot of risk (the perks of being mostly housebound--yippee!), so, while breakage needs to be factored in, it's not going to be as big an issue for me as it would be for someone leading a more peripatetic life. I would think ten tanks would do me, with coils to match. I already have four Zeniths and forty coils, so I'm on my way.
I'm guessing I don't need to worry about batteries. Plenty of tools require 18650s, etc. I don't think they or their chargers will be pulled from the shelves, barring cataclysm (in which case, all bets are off, anyway).
It is at this stage of the thought experiment that I start to tire. There's no certainty vaping is going to be banned. Do I really want to load up on a lot of hardware when there's every chance it will continue to be available--and improved--in the coming years? Do I want to devote valuable freezer space to liquid nicotine for decades? It all becomes exhausting and I start to want to leave it in the hands of the gods and deal with what comes when it comes.
And here I am, once again, back where I started. I wonder how long I'll stay on this hamster wheel.