Washington’s Struggle with Vaping and Tobacco Legislation: A Smoker’s Perspective

As an avid premium tobacco smoker, my kind tends to feud with the vaping crowd, mostly because of legislation being passed to limit the vaping industry and cigarette industry, which hurts the cigar world. I smoke cigars regularly, to say the least, and to curb that craving for lighting up in times when I simply don't have time to smoke a cigar, I have tried “cigar” vapes. They are nothing more than the same junk that's in other vapes but taste like you are licking an ashtray that a little vanilla extract spilled on. So, needless to say, I am not a fan. However, my fiancée is an avid vaper with no intent to cut down or stop in the future. She is pretty hooked on the nicotine dragon. I have had friends say, “Oh, I'm not addicted, I just do it when I'm out or just a little bit here and there.” 

Recent Study  

A recent study from the University of California San Diego has found a key warning sign of vaping addiction. Researchers analyzed over 19 million vaping-related social media posts and found that individuals often begin by posting positively about vaping, then progress to discussing hacking, addiction signs, health effects, and quit attempts. What to take out of this study is: 

Key findings include:

• 27% of users attempted to quit, with a 26% success rate on the first try. 
• Failed attempts led to a second attempt after an average of 361 days, with a 36% success rate. 
• The average time to a first quit attempt was 531 days after the initial vaping post.

Social Media 

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, says that frequent social media posts about vaping indicate addiction. This is interesting to me, as almost all of the people I know that vape do not do so on social media. However, every single person in my cigar circle looks like a teenage girl getting that perfect glam shot: cigar positioned just right, background perfect, hat straight, maybe puffing smoke out slowly for a cloud, maybe getting their drink in there. It's comical because I too am one of these prissy teen girls that need to get the perfect shot sometimes. I guess the difference is we don’t talk about quitting. 

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The Look

I should really end this with smoking is bad. Even though you can fulfill your dream of looking badass like a mafia boss or Rambo, or Tommy DeVito, or Clint Eastwood in all the westerns, or Tony Montana from Scarface, or Wolverine, or even Robert De Niro in the cool movies he did, I think my point is: don't smoke, don't vape. If you want to quit, go here.