Thomas Iacobucci | The Crow’s Nest
By James Bennett III
I really don’t want to sound like a “truth” advertisement, but vaping is dumb as heck.
Juuls are probably the worst. Too many young people buy into a consumer identity, only to realize later on that they were bamboozled into a nicotine addiction.
Yeah, cool cucumber tasted pretty great, and it’s nice pretending that you don’t have to brush your teeth if you boof a mint pod, but the tradeoff isn’t worth it. Don’t you lie to me and say you’ve never torn your room apart after losing your Juul. You animals have turned into proper fiends.
I don’t think I really need to reiterate how dumb it looks to walk around with a flash drive in your mouth.
What I probably should reiterate, though, is that “safer” doesn’t mean “safe.”
I’ll put it this way: Cigarettes are like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Unless you’re a horribly uneducated misanthrope, you have a pretty good idea of how bad it could end.
Vaping, on the other hand, is like being offered a mystery bag before jumping out of the airplane; there might be a partially torn parachute in the bag, but there could also be poisonous snakes in the bag. Either way, you won’t know until it’s too late.
Your best bet is to never jump out of perfectly good airplanes.
In fact, as the first studies are being published, we’re getting a better idea of just how harmful vaping could be.
The combined efforts of Medpage Today and the American Heart Association helped uncover the fact that vaping nicotine can damage your blood vessels.
Other studies from the American Journal of Physiology or the Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology show that vaping could weaken your immune system.
The Indian Journal study also found that nicotine, in general, can be harmful to your reproductive system. In males, adverse effects can include erectile dysfunction. For females, nicotine can impair fertilization.
I can only imagine the environmental impact that vaping has inflicted on the planet.
Of course, the real members of “Vape Nation” are just as obnoxious. But they, at least, tend to own up to their obnoxiousness. I figure it has to be really difficult to sit around blowing “Os” and ripping fat candy-flavored clouds without eventually realizing they’re acting as smart as the smoke machines they’re appropriating.
Years after my first cigarette, when I told myself I was quitting nicotine, it wasn’t too rare for me to go through two or three Juul pods in a day.
Vaping didn’t change my habits at all — it just made them more socially acceptable and let me have my nicotine fix whenever I had a craving. I was the type of douchebag who vaped in the middle of class.
Since I used to roll my own cigarettes, vaping was far more expensive, too.
Now that I’m finally quitting, I’ve realized that I shouldn’t have tried to wean myself off of nicotine with a vape. Nicotine withdrawal sucks, regardless of how you were consuming it. Switching to a vape only sustained my mint-flavored addiction.
For those of you who are lucky enough to have never gone through nicotine withdrawals, it’s a lot like waking up thirsty in the middle of the night but not being able to get a glass of water. Headaches and general irritability are common, too.
Listen, I can’t tell you how to live your life. If nicotine addiction sounds like your cup of tea, by all means, blow some fat clouds.
Just don’t go around pretending it’s safe or smart.
At least you don’t smell like cigarettes. Right?
Your honesty is unusual. Great post.