So, I've now been a vaper and an ex-smoker for 100 days. I had been an ex-smoker before (for about 1000 days once), but I was also fighting the urge to start smoking again every single day. For the first time in 30 years however, I've spent 100 days without smoking *and* without craving. I missed that sensation: I last felt it when I was a kid, before I picked up my first cigarette!
That got me to think about what vaping really is, why our powers-that-be insist on trying to ban it, and what danger it really poses to society. And here are my conclusions:
- I'm addicted to nicotine, not smoking. I was addicted to cigarettes because cigarettes gave me nicotine. vaping gives me nicotine too. Therefore I'm addicted to vaping. In any case, I am a nicotine addict. No need to pretend otherwise: I've made my peace with that a long time ago. Vaping is my new delivery method to fulfill my addiction.
- Vaping is NOT pretend smoking: it is an entirely different activity. Sure it involves putting something in one's mouth, inhaling something in the lungs, and that something contains nicotine too, but the similarities end there. The interesting thing about this new activity is that it keeps those who do it off cigarettes! That's completely in line with worldwide anti-tobacco policies, and that's worth repeating.
- I, as a vaper, do NOT like smoking. I don't like the taste of cigarettes. The only reason I liked smoking is because it gave me nicotine. I suppose my body convinced itself that cigarettes tasted good to get the nicotine. Now that vaping delivers my nicotine, I can taste cigarette smoke for what it really is - gross and unattractive. I suppose that's what my first cigarette tasted like.
- Suppose a kid were to pick up vaping because it "looks cool" - the same way I picked up smoking when I was a kid. Would that lead the kid to smoke? Well, let's apply logic here:
-- The kid starts vaping 0% nicotine. They are not exposed to nicotine through vaping. They do start going through a routine of putting something in their mouth to draw something in their lungs, and that could arguably facilitate the act of smoking the first cigarette after that. But we vapers know the routine and gestures involved in vaping are really quite different from those of smoking, and don't really translate from one to the other. I know that for a fact because, despite being a smoker for 30 years, I had to relearn a whole new set of habits to become a vaper. Again, vaping is a different activity from smoking. Still, even without nicotine, vaping is an unnecessary compulsion.
--The kid starts vaping nicotine. They become addicted to nicotine. Yes, that's bad in and of itself. That's where vaping is dangerous: it's another possible addiction kids can do without. But then, once addicted to nicotine, they're far less likely to become addicted to cigarettes, as cigarettes would simply taste gross to them and nothing more: the vaping addiction would, in effect, "vaccinate" them against cigarettes! Unfortunately, that would happen at the cost of being addicted to something else, but at least that something else is pretty harmless, unlike cigarettes.
So we have a duty to keep kids away from vaping: if they don't need it in the first place, they shouldn't do it anymore than they should do cigarettes, poppers, glue, booze or trichloroethylene. Other than that, it's pretty obvious vaping is beneficial: smokers get to realize it's not cigarettes they crave, but simply nicotine. It frees them from both cigarette-induced ailments *and* cravings, and that's pretty liberating!
It's also obvious lumping together smoking and vaping makes no sense: regulating nicotine makes sense, I'm not against that. I can even understand taxing nicotine. But regulating/taxing vaping is extreme overgeneralization: a vaper who vapes 0% nic does nothing to deserve either the regulation or the taxing. Calling PVs "electronic cigarettes" goes a long way towards maintaining the harmful confusion between vaping and smoking, unfortunately.
Finally, I reckon there should be a big campaign to find policy makers who smoke, offer them a vaping setup and some advice to get started, and dare them to try vaping for 3 weeks instead of smoking, in the interest of making educated decisions about vaping. I bet three quarters of them would quit smoking, discover what we've all discovered here, and suddenly realize they should help spread the word for the sake of public health, instead spreading FUD and passing knee-jerk laws.
Sorry if all of the above is obvious to you all, but I've come to realize I entered the vaping world from the wrong end, trying to replace cigarettes with fake cigarettes and fake tobacco. Like most smokers I guess... But now I'm doing it right and enjoying it for what it is, I'm a happy ex-smoker for the first time in 30 years, and that's a pretty big thing for me. I felt like sharing what I've discovered, so would-be vapers don't make the mistakes I made with those silly cigalikes and dubious unconvincing tobacco-flavored e-juices. I wish more smokers rediscovered the joys of not being a smoker, thanks to proper vaping, and the authorities helped them get into vaping successfully instead of trying to shut them down.
That got me to think about what vaping really is, why our powers-that-be insist on trying to ban it, and what danger it really poses to society. And here are my conclusions:
- I'm addicted to nicotine, not smoking. I was addicted to cigarettes because cigarettes gave me nicotine. vaping gives me nicotine too. Therefore I'm addicted to vaping. In any case, I am a nicotine addict. No need to pretend otherwise: I've made my peace with that a long time ago. Vaping is my new delivery method to fulfill my addiction.
- Vaping is NOT pretend smoking: it is an entirely different activity. Sure it involves putting something in one's mouth, inhaling something in the lungs, and that something contains nicotine too, but the similarities end there. The interesting thing about this new activity is that it keeps those who do it off cigarettes! That's completely in line with worldwide anti-tobacco policies, and that's worth repeating.
- I, as a vaper, do NOT like smoking. I don't like the taste of cigarettes. The only reason I liked smoking is because it gave me nicotine. I suppose my body convinced itself that cigarettes tasted good to get the nicotine. Now that vaping delivers my nicotine, I can taste cigarette smoke for what it really is - gross and unattractive. I suppose that's what my first cigarette tasted like.
- Suppose a kid were to pick up vaping because it "looks cool" - the same way I picked up smoking when I was a kid. Would that lead the kid to smoke? Well, let's apply logic here:
-- The kid starts vaping 0% nicotine. They are not exposed to nicotine through vaping. They do start going through a routine of putting something in their mouth to draw something in their lungs, and that could arguably facilitate the act of smoking the first cigarette after that. But we vapers know the routine and gestures involved in vaping are really quite different from those of smoking, and don't really translate from one to the other. I know that for a fact because, despite being a smoker for 30 years, I had to relearn a whole new set of habits to become a vaper. Again, vaping is a different activity from smoking. Still, even without nicotine, vaping is an unnecessary compulsion.
--The kid starts vaping nicotine. They become addicted to nicotine. Yes, that's bad in and of itself. That's where vaping is dangerous: it's another possible addiction kids can do without. But then, once addicted to nicotine, they're far less likely to become addicted to cigarettes, as cigarettes would simply taste gross to them and nothing more: the vaping addiction would, in effect, "vaccinate" them against cigarettes! Unfortunately, that would happen at the cost of being addicted to something else, but at least that something else is pretty harmless, unlike cigarettes.
So we have a duty to keep kids away from vaping: if they don't need it in the first place, they shouldn't do it anymore than they should do cigarettes, poppers, glue, booze or trichloroethylene. Other than that, it's pretty obvious vaping is beneficial: smokers get to realize it's not cigarettes they crave, but simply nicotine. It frees them from both cigarette-induced ailments *and* cravings, and that's pretty liberating!
It's also obvious lumping together smoking and vaping makes no sense: regulating nicotine makes sense, I'm not against that. I can even understand taxing nicotine. But regulating/taxing vaping is extreme overgeneralization: a vaper who vapes 0% nic does nothing to deserve either the regulation or the taxing. Calling PVs "electronic cigarettes" goes a long way towards maintaining the harmful confusion between vaping and smoking, unfortunately.
Finally, I reckon there should be a big campaign to find policy makers who smoke, offer them a vaping setup and some advice to get started, and dare them to try vaping for 3 weeks instead of smoking, in the interest of making educated decisions about vaping. I bet three quarters of them would quit smoking, discover what we've all discovered here, and suddenly realize they should help spread the word for the sake of public health, instead spreading FUD and passing knee-jerk laws.
Sorry if all of the above is obvious to you all, but I've come to realize I entered the vaping world from the wrong end, trying to replace cigarettes with fake cigarettes and fake tobacco. Like most smokers I guess... But now I'm doing it right and enjoying it for what it is, I'm a happy ex-smoker for the first time in 30 years, and that's a pretty big thing for me. I felt like sharing what I've discovered, so would-be vapers don't make the mistakes I made with those silly cigalikes and dubious unconvincing tobacco-flavored e-juices. I wish more smokers rediscovered the joys of not being a smoker, thanks to proper vaping, and the authorities helped them get into vaping successfully instead of trying to shut them down.
