So the vast majority of vapers are not addicted to nic? I am. And that's the reason i vape. i thought other vapers need their nic too.
You may very well be correct, but you would have to ask "the vast majority of vapers". Until you do that, you are only drawing unfounded conclusions about a group of people so large and anonymous that they can only be referred to as "them". It is credulous to project your personal vaping situation onto such a vast group of people.
The "vast majority" of RL vapers I know, seem far more "addicted" to the equipment, how it performs, their skills in building and using it, and the flavor and clouds they can produce with it. To them, nicotine is actually considered a hindrance. Too much of it will interfere with what they seek, so they use none or very little.
This may be a very small segment of the vaping population, or a vast majority. Based on my own experience, I tend to believe that, for most people, vaping is an evolving dynamic. It starts with nicotine (which is not necessarily a synonym of addiction) coupled with a desire to quit smoking, and evolves, or at least has great potential to evolve, far from there. The "vast majority" of the RL vapers I know (all 12 of them, including myself
) began the transition by running into the vape shop with their EGO lanyard dangling to get their nic fix. That's like "stage 1", but I honestly believe that very few vapers get marooned there...though with nothing shiny in the showcases to attract attention thanks to regulatory strangulation, that stage 1 will become an increasingly difficult hurdle to clear. Sad, but that's the end result of a severely regulated, tax burdened wasteland...money and addiction. Sadder still, it's precisely what you are, unintentionally I think, promoting.
I think the socio/cultural element is paramount for us as well. Vaping is very much a bonding ritual, much as smoking is (was) a ritual for like-minded people to congregate around. The big difference is that, where cigarette smoking was a mere catalyst to social interactions not pertaining directly to it, vaping IS the topic around which the social interaction revolves. In other words, a hobby akin to RC Modeling, cycling, video gaming, take your pick. Interestingly, all of those hobbies have the same potential as vaping to become addictive, unhealthy, or downright dangerous, not to mention extremely costly.
To me, vaping is a very similar dynamic to what happens when enthusiasts congregate at a comic shop. If we simply assume these people are "addicted" to comic collecting (and many of them will freely admit so, since comic collecting does not have to shoulder the burden of social stigma that vaping as an extension of evil cigarette smoking/nicotine consumption must), why do they not simply rush in, grab what they "need", and leave?
Am I making any sense at all?
Are vape shops sustainable? I would go so far as to say they are
essential to the culture of vaping. Measure it in dollars and cents if you will, but without them as gathering places, we are all lost in The Amazon ether with only our credit cards to guide us. Is that what you want?
