this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
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I don't get why people still smoke tbh. I understand vaping (though for disclosure, I vape), but I don't understand smoking.
I can understand vaping because you can control your nicotine intake, you can control how it tastes, how much vapor is produced, you can make your own ejuice, there's evidence that it's less harmful than smoking (less harmful, not "harmless" just "less harmful"), it doesn't usually smell like shit, it doesn't color the walls, doesn't coat your lungs with tar, is probably more environmentally friendly if you have a refillable vape instead of one of those shitty disposable ones (at the very least you won't leave butts everywhere)...
There are probably other upsides to vaping over smoking that I'm forgetting, but like, why would you smoke when vaping exists? I can understand an occasional cigar, cigarette, hookah or pipe, but I can't understand doing it regularly. Even if we pretend the health impact is the same, you're still gonna smell like some kind of metallic garbage and ruin your possessions and home.
I'm not saying non-smokers should vape, I just don't understand why smokers refuse it.
As a former smoker: the vapes do deliver nicotine, but much in the same way a pornstar martini delivers alcohol. It's overly sweet (fruit flavors) has a slightly sticky mouth feel. Even the non fruit flavors feel off.
I know it's hard to fathom how anyone can enjoy smoking, from your perspective, but the addiction is very emotional and everything associated with it I still crave (even though that feeling is not as extreme anymore, it's still there). This includes knowing that I'd smoke through a harsh cold and cough my lungs out.
Addiction is the opposite of reason or rationality. Everyone that smoke is acutely aware of how bad it is, how it smells etc. And they pay a lot for the privilege of poisoning themselves (at the end I was at 300 Euros per month).
Okay, I can understand the sickly-sweet part of it. Part of my vape use is satisfying my sweet tooth without eating a bunch of calories.
However, I will ask, have you ever tried ejuice without any added sweeteners? I don't know of any companies that make ejuice without it anymore; last one I knew about went bankrupt a year ago as a result of the USPS ejuice ban. However, that company specifically was extremely good at reproducing accurate flavors and their ejuice often tasted nearly identical to whatever they claimed it was supposed to taste like, and I speculate that had to do with the lack of additional sweeteners. I would never say their ejuice was "sickly sweet", though a lot of the stuff I've gotten recently is.
Since your not a smoker anymore, I wouldn't recommend this for you, but maybe someone else passing by will read this: try making DIY ejuice. You can cut out most or all of the sweetener. You could cut out all the flavor entirely if you want! However, if the sweetness bothers you, try making DIY ejuice that doesn't have any sweetener in it.
I've had unsweetened and 'tobacco' flavored ones. I didn't find them appealing either. They feel more damp and generally not as enjoyable as a sigaret. Similar with hookah, it maybe does it's job, but I liked the tobacco burn (I had rather harsher cigarettes, like gauloise or chesterfield).