Cultural assimilation

Pretending? I'm not gonna say vaping is healthy, but it definitely isn't as bad for you as cigarettes. I made the switch years ago just because I wanted to see if I could stop smoking cigarettes, and within the first week or two my lungs felt noticeably better. I've been gradually lowering the nicotine level in the juices I use and will hopefully ween myself off vaping too.

I had the same journey and now have been smoke/vape free for 2 years.
- Same. Was smoking 2 packs per day for a while. Completely switched to vaping. Lowered the nicotine content of the juice a couple times and eventually was able to quit entirely. Been almost 6 years now.
  I’m not sure what the scene is like now that all the strong cartridges and disposable devices are more popular. Back when I was doing it most people used box mods and it was easy to find juice in any flavor and strength you wanted. I remember things got pretty wild right around when I quit actually, with many states doing temporary bans and eventually banning flavors and stuff
- Boom, same. Must be like 3 or 4 years now. It’s a great tool for that if you don’t fall into the hobby trap.
This is the right way to vape.
Should be used as a way to quit smoking.
People that vape as an alternative to smoking cigarettes end up chain vaping. It's just too convenient.
- That's why i ditched my dab pen a few years ago. It was just too easy to lay on the couch and hit that all night, becoming ungodly high without realizing it. Now i go outside an smoke a joint so i EARN that ungodly high
  
  Ditto. Coding for hours on end chugging coffee and pulling on a nic stick wasn't a healthy lifestyle.
- It's what it was advertised as originally, but then brands realized they could boom in sales by dropping that act and making cute, colorful cartridges with a shit ton of flavors that appeal to teens. Some girl had these iPod case looking ones that were flavored like pineapple banana or smth. Hell they make vapes disguised as school supplies now.
  There's a lot of people who didn't do drugs at all that started with vaping (Truth Initiative has a 2020 study about it, I skimmed it tbh), and it's especially bad in middle and high schools. I saw people hitting huge fucking clouds in the middle of a classroom, near the teacher's desk. One idiot made a cloud in our dark classroom with the curtains shining sunlight on him, so they had to close the blinds and fan the cloud so he wouldn't get caught.
  They know full well they're creating future addicts and eventual cigarette smokers, and they don't give a damn.
  
  The Netflix doc also covers how Juul hired the wrong guy to do thier commercials.
  He's the dude famous for making the iPod pastel silhouette commercials. Hip and sexy.
  Juul started by wanting to help people quit. Then some influencer was vaping on stream and it blew the hell up in short order amongst younger crowds.
  What really pisses me off is the synthetic THC Juul carts teens were smoking that fucked them up. They did that to themselves by trying to do drugs using a Juul. Juul and the legit vaping industry took all that backlash. The news and even CDC spouted bullshit in the name of sparing kids. No one clarified that they were smoking bootleg weed (illegal drugs) and Juul/legal vaping wasn't at fault.
  So adults that were vaping to quit ciggs switched back to ciggs to never quit. I was a vaper during that time and I can't tell you how many people I set straight when they said "that'll kill you" while they're smoking ciggs.

Compared to smoking? Probably.

Almost certainly, but there are some caveats. Vitamin E was added to some around 2020 and that really fucked people up. The much higher nicotine percentage could also be doing damage we haven't had enough time to fully understand as well. There's also concern around the metal coils breaking down, especially when people 'dry hit' or use a coil after it's spent. That being said, normal vaping is almost certainly safer than smoking
- Vitamin e was added to counterfeit THC carts and fucked some people up around 2020, it's not my understanding it ever made it into nic vapes they just used the THC carts as pretext for flavor bans of nic juice.
I feel like vapers vape more on average than smokers smoke. This is purely anecdotal, but if its true, then that complicates things.
- I definitely got my vape more than I used to smoke cigs. However it's only one or two puffs usually. A whole cigarette is many more puffs.
  I don't know if it equals out or one is more. I will say vaping feels better than cigarettes.
- Depends on the strength of the juice. If you have one with more nicotine, you aren’t gonna need to puff as much.
  Also, there’s a non-zero chance it’s THC or something else as well.
- AFAIK, you have to apply nicotine quite frequently to achieve a steady state and avoid withdrawal – every 30–45 minutes. 10–20 years ago, every single smoker I asked smoked > 20 cigarettes. Today, almost all admit to only 10–15, which is pharmacologically too infrequent and triggers multiple withdrawal–relaps cycles every day, worsening the nicotine addiction.
  To handle drugs which are so addictive, you need a stable steady state, not fluctuating pladma levels. If you want to lower your dose, you cannot lower the frequency, you have to lower the dose of each application.
  If vapers would vape every 30–45 min ≈ 20/day, they would stabilize their nicotine level, which would enable them to reduce the dose of nicotine over time.
  
  It doesn't work like that at all. Not everyone who smokes has a pack a day habit. It varies wildly and doesn't require some uniform steady state.
  Someone who has a morning cigarette just wants a morning cigarette. Social smokers may not even smoke everyday.
  It's just that those who DO make the habit more frequent, pack a day etc., will maintain THAT level.
  Those who use vaporizers are able to create different patterns because of the nature of the device. Doesn't have a finite time limit like a single cigarette and differing nicotine amounts, etc.
  
  10-15 a day works presuming you aren’t awake for all 24 hours

Vaping is unquestionably healthier. Not good but cancer sticks are pretty high on the list of unhealthy shit.

Had a wretched smoker's cough for years, took me an extra 10 minutes to cough it out and get out of bed. Stopped 2 weeks after going to vaping.
OTOH, 10 years later vaping became too much, now I do those nicotine pouches. Very happy with those.
- I never smoked but that's consistent with whet my best friend has told me about when he switched to vaping from cigarettes, along with he doesn't get out of breath as easily anymore.
Is there enough data to support that claim? Not really disagreeing, i genuinely don't know. There was a time where your doctor would tell you to smoke camels, because these are the healty cigarettes.
- The UK did a lot of research on it iirc, there's the first thing from google a study from 2022.
  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/vaping-substantially-less-harmful-than-smoking-largest-review-of-its-kind-finds
  People make a big deal about the metals in the coil but I think people forget if you're smoking cigarettes tobacco has heavy metals too and many other things like sawdust and formaldehyde when vape juice is like 4 ingredients you can make yourself.
  Full disclosure, I don't vape, but I did from like 2015 to 2020.

Well, I certainly can't burn the house down anymore.