Thread

People hooked on vapes try a new way to quit: cigarettes

248 points · 335 comments · alephnerd

dasKrokodil · 1790061745 · focus · HN ↗
A while back I saw this on reddit... in case you don't want to click the link, it's a picture of a cigarette with the caption "This plant-based alternative promises to help high schoolers stop vaping".
I would have never thought that people would be stupid enough to try this for real, but here we are...
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ffinally-i-can-get-my-friends-to-stop-vaping-v0-kullhw8l224h1.jpeg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D5b429d24bfe7cb66608ba3677ab4c8477ded1b72" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....
1. EvanAnderson · 1790064075 · focus · HN ↗
  I am reminded of: <a href="https://theonion.com/new-smokable-nicotine-sticks-can-they-help-smokers-qui-1819564753/" rel="nofollow">https://theonion.com/new-smokable-nicotine-sticks-can-they-h...
  1. hn_throwaway_99 · 1790117197 · focus · HN ↗
    That was hilarious but I hate how hard The Onion has to compete with reality now.
2. d--b · 1790110860 · focus · HN ↗
  You're being judgmental but I think you're just misinformed.
  Vaping can be difficult to stop because:
  - it's more accepted
  - it's smoother on the throat, and there's plenty of tastes.
  - there is no "dose", if you want to you can just vape non stop, and you can pace yourself. With a cigarette, you can't smoke slowly, or you'll loose half the cigarette.
  All in all, it's just more convenient and cheaper to vape. If you're hooked, I can see it quite a challenge to stop. You can always say : "oh I am just taking x drags a day".
  Personnally I didn't like vaping much, cause it was the beginning, the tastes were weird, the gear was not great battery-wise. So I kept going back to smoking. Eventually going cold turkey from cigarettes was way easier than through vaping.
  1. axospaxos · 1790113602 · focus · HN ↗
    Heroin is even less accepted, offers less tastes and is more serious about correct dose.
    d--b · 1790143786 · focus · HN ↗
    do I really have to mention that vaping and smoking use the same chemical addiction in comparable doses?
    axospaxos · 1790161450 · focus · HN ↗
    Sure and maybe also cover why you wont add pure nicotine to your heroin instead of subjecting yourself and others to documented cancer risk from cigarette smoke.
    throwawayffffas · 1790152985 · focus · HN ↗
    Heroin does nothing for nicotine addiction, heroine addicts typically smoke as well.
  2. anigbrowl · 1790119420 · focus · HN ↗
    You're missing the very basic point that taking up cigarettes is just as bad and likely considerably worse.
    d--b · 1790149377 · focus · HN ↗
    Well, if smoking cigarettes is easier to quit, then it might be better overall for some people to take up cigarettes a few months and quit, than to keep vaping for the rest of their lives.
    Not saying it's the best way to stop, quitting cigarettes has been proven to be very diffult. But GP branding those people as stupid is a bit harsh imo.
3. thin_carapace · 1790122043 · focus · HN ↗
  while tobacco is indeed more viscerally addictive than vaporized nicotine, i still believe it is wrong to label the act of switching from vapes to cigs as blanket stupidity. a cigarette has a defined start and end point around which the brain may optimize, while vapes have no off switch. from the outside in, it may be difficult to see that this factor may weigh in significantly ... so ill bolster my point by suggesting tobacco is a valid method to control schizophrenia symptoms, i dont believe that high dose nic vapes have the same effect.
  1. busymom0 · 1790131036 · focus · HN ↗
    People are even vaping on public transit nowadays. Never seen that for smoking.
    compass_copium · 1790133112 · focus · HN ↗
    You must be young.
    happymellon · 1790133440 · focus · HN ↗
    They appear to think that cigarettes smell bad, yet their nicotine infusused fruit salad/cotton candy monstrosity is fine.
    [deleted] · 1790136297 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
    throwawayffffas · 1790153199 · focus · HN ↗
    People used to smoke everywhere. Bars, restaurants, tiny offices without ventilation, cars, busses, aircraft, underground railway, literally everywhere.
    When it became common knowledge that second hand smoke is bad restrictions came into place.
    astura · 1790156907 · focus · HN ↗
    Smoking on public transit (and literally everywhere else too) was totally normal and common up until the 90s when regulations started to trickle in. When I was in elementary school teachers smoked in the teacher's lounge and would talk about when they used to be able to smoke in the classroom. My grandma would take about smoking while at work, and she worked as a seamstress.
  2. vonunov · 1790131879 · focus · HN ↗
    Have you read gwern on nicotine? Particularly, in this case, regarding MAOIs in tobacco, so I suppose the hop through gwern isn't entirely necessary, but it's where I first heard of this, anyway.
    <a href="https://gwern.net/nicotine#addictiveness" rel="nofollow">https://gwern.net/nicotine#addictiveness
    tonyarkles · 1790136411 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, so I have smoked for 80% of the last 30 years… usually between 1/2-1 pack/day. I’ve been cutting back by switching to vape, knowing that it only has nicotine and not the MAOI and other substances. Right before Labour Day weekend I ran out and decided to try going the weekend. It’s been 20 days now and I am starting to feel like the effects of the MAOI are starting to wear off. I still have nicotine cravings, but it’s once I firmly feel like the MAOI withdrawal is gone (probably another week or two) I plan to start breaking the habit with patches and maybe gum.
    Step by step, I feel like it might actually stick for real this time. Every time I started up again in the past was contextual (eg a break up, out for drinks with friends, have a half drunk smoke and I’m hooked again). No longer have any smoker friends, no longer have significant drama in my life, hoping it’ll work out.
    thin_carapace · 1790141229 · focus · HN ↗
    maois are what make tobacco more than just nicotine (in terms of both benefit potential and addiction potential). maios were the first ever anti depressant, cigarettes are therefore a valid anti depressant too. cigs are also correlated with testosterone. maybe there's an ulterior reason they are demonized?
4. userbinator · 1790130629 · focus · HN ↗
  Bonus virtue-signaling points for "plant-based alternative", although I had a different plant in mind when I read that phrase.

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