Exactly...

I'm glad it helped you to quit but it is causing a whole new generation of smokers, those who vape. Perhaps it should only be prescribed for those trying to quit smoking cigarettes I believe in the future it will be looked upon as a grave mistake like Thalidomide. It is solving a problem but creating a larger one. I'm in a high school all day and it's an epidemic.

[en.m.wikipedia.org]

@Pamscwf1 Note "the National Health Service recommends making vapes available on prescription to smokers who wish to quit" - nobody is suggesting that vapes should be provided free of charge (or at heavily-subsidised NHS prescription rates) to people who don't smoke and just fancy giving nicotine a go. The NHS continues to advise that neither smoking nor vaping is very good for you and you're better off not doing either.

As for creating a bigger problem than smoking: evidence so far suggests otherwise.

@Jnei in my response I never mentioned anything about free or subsidized availability. Your response is perplexing to me. Also, if you could provide the evidence you are citing, I'd love to read it.

@Pamscwf1 "Perhaps it should only be prescribed for those trying to quit smoking cigarettes" - I was simply pointing out that what you suggest should be done is precisely what the NHS are doing.

[nhs.uk]
[publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk]
[bhf.org.uk]
[newscientist.com]
[thelancet.com]

@Jnei Thanks, in the US we haven't come that far.

@Pamscwf1 I think you will. Nobody really knows whether or not vaping is better or worse than smoking right now as it hasn't been around for long enough, though right now it seems on balance to be less harmful (vaping may be relatively new, but the chemicals involved aren't and have been extensively studied). We benefit here enormously from having the NHS which is funded by public contribution rather than healthcare firms open to pressure from share holders; based on the tobacco industry's tendency to try to cover up anything that might adversely affect sales, NHS advice seems more likely to be reliable and based on independent science than anything put out by US healthcare and the FDA, but truth usually comes out. We will see.

@Jnei The question is does vaping get folks off nicotine eventually? Or do they replace one way of administering it with another?

That's what I found when people around me were quitting using patches/gums/candies with nicotine - they ended up with addiction to the substitute. (And in the case of gums/candies - oral cancers are a greater risk).

I think vaping is probably as good a method to taper as any.

But it's epidemic with kids right now - not good. Plus the flavor additives may be a risk of which no one is sure.

@Raven It appears that replacing smoking with vaping does indeed have a higher success rate at helping smokers kick the nicotine habit - far more so than patches, gum and so on. I would guess, based on my own experience, that this is because it so closely mimics the act of smoking: the vape itself and the little bottles and cleaning tools replaced the cigarettes and lighter, and even more importantly I still got to go out for a smoking break with friends at work - had I have tried to quit with patches or gum, I'd have missed the chats (and unbridled bitchiness about all the colleagues we didn't like) and would sooner or later have gone out to smoke just so I could join in with all that.

While nicotine is very toxic, the amount absorbed by the smoker or vaper is small - it's the tar and various other carcinogens that kill people. Living with an addiction is no fun, but we will always have addicts - and so it's better to have those who cannot beat their addiction feed it using a method that removes many of the riskier chemicals.

Vaping should definitely not be marketed at kids, no doubt there, unless they already smoke. From what I gather, certain vape manufacturers, especially Juul, have extensively advertised their products to young people in the US, whereas in the EU advertising such products is strictly regulated and we haven't experienced the same epidemic. I think that the answe is to ban advertising.

The flavour additives are all chemicals which have already undergone laboratory testing and have been declared safe for human use. There may be side-effects we don't already know about, but it still all looks like vaping is much safer than smoking.

you could take up food instead.

@MsDemeanour I have other vices...at my age, I am currently working on two specific projects, one is to rip my abs as if I was a teen once again ( believe it or not, is working... therefore food is not an option) and the other one, I am working on my third language. Of course I would trade my time for love and companionship any given day.

@IamNobody I hope you are working on more than your abs. Just think about having those ripped abs framed by whatever else is around them

@btroje ... The frame is still decent ( Anyway, great to hear from you )