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. 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. 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.

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