So WTF. I hear from smokers that “it just doesn’t taste the same” or “I’m not addicted to the nicotine” or other bullshit. Look, so maybe it doesn’t taste the same. What about a partial step? Every other smoke break, use a vaping device for that one. Same nicotine kick without the cloud of toxic smoke. And then gradually over time wean off smoking. Even reducing down to 1 cigarette a day is a huge step and would bring someone’s life expectancy almost back to normal.
So for those of you who still smoke or know a smoker, have you tried this line of argument? Why do they keep doing it? I’ve ever bought vape devices for people, they say it’s just not the same…
Why do some people refuse to try diet soft drinks, even though they know it would probably be better for them in the long run (less calories)? People like what they like, and I don’t see why a smoker not wanting to try vaping is so surprising, and why it bothers you so much.
Why don’t you believe them? Are you under the impression that the only reason people smoke is for the nicotine? Even before vaping became a thing, there were nicotine patches, gum, etc.
Patches and gum are far more expensive than cigarettes, don’t offer the nicotine in “hits”, and don’t have nearly as much nicotine. I would assume they are not comparable. Like a heroin addict trying to switch to plain tylenol.
I switched to vaping almost 6 years ago now. One of the better decisions I’ve made in my life.
I’ve tried to get some of my smoking friends to switch too, with little success. I’ve even bought spare kits and juice that I will let them have if they switch.
I dunno, people have their preferences. It’s an addiction, and addictions are not rational.
One thing that I’ve found, is that it is not the same. The problem is that people like familiar things and this thing that is kinda familiar, but still different may have some issues similar to the uncanny valley issue in CGI.
When I first tried vaping, I tried those little prepackaged cigarette things, and really didn’t like them, ended up just using them for a quick nicotine fix at times when I didn’t really have the ability to smoke. I ended up getting a better setup, with a variety of flavors (the prepackaged ones were flavored like a cigarette, but still different enough that they really weren’t.), and really I wasted a bunch of money on setups that I didn’t like and never ended up using, and a bunch of flavors that I never enjoyed.
Still spent less money on that than I would have on cigarettes, but it did take a while to find something that I like and that could replace my smoking habit.
And we are all beings of ritual. There is something to the ritual of pulling out the cig and lighting it up that isn’t really satisfied with pushing a button on an electronic device. Even after I had been vaping for several months, I would still start reaching around for my cigarettes and lighter before realizing that I didn’t carry them anymore, in fact, though it is not as often, I still do that occasionally. It’s so much a ritual that when I was a smoker, cigarettes would appear lit in my mouth with me having done no conscious effort to do so, I would actually be a bit surprised to find that I was smoking.
Then there is the entire other side of it. There are many anti-smokers out there that aren’t anti-ciagrate, they are anti-nicotene. They try to drum up fears of vaping, so it doesn’t seem as useful to switch. I’ve talked to chain smokers who told me that my vaping was going to cause me to get “popcorn lung”. That sort of misinformation is not saving anyone’s life, but it is an answer to at least some of the people that refuse to switch.
Has anyone burned to death while vaping? I guess if someone was passed out, and a cheap device started a battery fire and burned the building down.
The thing is, every cigarette uses an open flame and is lit with an open flame. While only one in probably thousands of cheaply made lithium powered devices is ever going to malfunction into a fire, and it’s only going to do it once.
When one of my roommates moved out, I found a line of burns in the carpet next to his bed. At least a dozen or more times he had dropped a cigarette onto the carpet falling asleep.
Probably. But that doesn’t stop me from being amused by a Snopes article basically saying “Pfftt, that guy didn’t get popcorn lung from vaping, he just had his face exploded from vaping.”
I tried an e-cigarette many years ago when I was still smoking. It wasn’t as satisfying, and it was rougher on the throat and lungs. It definitely did NOT satisfy my cravings.
Then I switched to cigarettes from an untreated tobacco for a couple years, and quit. Later - months? over a year?- a friend gave me a couple of vape hits, and every cell in my body responded. Completely satisfying, even more than cigarettes had been. (Never did it again.)
I’m a smoker. The answer is “it’s personal”, everybody will have their own reason. I’ve tried a few hits from a vaporizer here and there, different flavors of ,“juice”, is the correct term I believe, and regardless of what it smells like, it all tastes the exact same to me, and that taste is bad. Besides, I don’t like smelling like a marshmallow that fell in the campfire, or burned sugar, or strawberry candy and sparkles, or glittery blueberry-chocolate syrup anyway. Vapesters are like those old people who wear too much perfume or cologne, they think they smell good, but really they just stink. After a while that shit gives me a headache. Oh and also, more and more, vaping is being treated like smoking. I’m seeing a lot of “No vaping allowed” signs around these days.
Do you not value your own life enough to at least try to find a vape flavor you can tolerate? You just don’t care?
I mean, ok, if you said that you had tried. That you paid for vaping device that had high reviews, and you tried to bring it out alternate smoke breaks, and you just couldn’t do it, ok. But why don’t you consider premature aging and all the cosmetic symptoms of smoking and high probability of early death worth at least giving it a shot?
I don’t smoke cigarettes but:
a) I am not convinced its all that much better/safer than conventional cigarettes in the long-term
b) I drive a manual transmission, use hand tools when power tools are available to do the same work, and shoot flintlocks. Some people are just funny in what they like and enjoy and I can live with that.
I often wonder myself why people still smoke. I switched to vaping almost 4 years ago, and it really was the best decision of my life. Of course it doesn’t taste the same. After 33 years of smoking, I acknowledged that burning tobacco tastes disgusting. It really does. Now, I smell like waffles instead of an ashtray. I spend as much on a year’s worth of juice (I make my own) as I would for two weeks * two weeks * worth of cigarettes.
Why anyone wants to smell awful, lose their sense of taste, destroy their teeth and potentially their social life, have to go outside in all types of weather, and of course, there’s the whole cancer thing…well,it’s beyond me.
Any current smokers reading this, I urge you to take another look at vaping. Don’t go to a smoke shop or your local kwik-e-mart. Go to a real, dedicated vape shop. A well trained associate can help you find a device that is safe, and works for you, and guide you to a flavour that is tobacco-based, which can aid in your transition.
I’m not one for over-dramatising, but vaping legitimately changed my life.
Unless you’re being handed a novelty cigar, smokers are generally safe from facial explosion.