I have a friend who has been using an e-cigarette for 10+ years. He doesn’t seem any less addicted to smoking as back when he was using old-fashioned cigarettes.

I understand e-cigarettes are supposed to help you quit… but has anyone actually had success with them? Or, is it more like trading one vice for another?

  • MicroThePirate@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Depends - it can be used to quit by controlling and lowering the nicotine content, but it could just be used as a harm reduction method.

    While certainly not healthy, it’s significantly much less bad for you than smoking.

  • Cyanogenmon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Current e-cig user here.

    Honestly, as a smoker, it’s a godsend. The smoke goes away so quickly, it has higher nicotine than cigarettes when purchased the RIGHT way, and since I can now smoke inside, I can puff on it all day every day as I work from home!

    In all seriousness, it’s worse imo. It sets the precedent from the 50s of smoking EVERYWHERE and now without any of the negative outward effects like smell or yellowing of the teeth/walls.

    It’s honestly made my addiction worse. To each their own for sure, but in my experience it just made my bad habit SLIGHTLY healthier, but much more accessible.

    It requires a significant amount of willpower to break the addiction, but for those of us that do not, definitely do not pick this up. It will not help. If you have that willpower, it is useful.

    • NightOwl@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      It seems useful for people who were addicted to cigarettes by providing a potentially less harmful alternative.

      But, for the generation that didn’t have addiction to cigarettes prior to E cigarettes I wonder how many went on to pick up the addiction to nicotine they otherwise wouldn’t have, since smoking cigarettes seemed to be going out of style.

  • Stilicho@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It helps most in the sense that it’s not at all as unhealthy. Anything you hear to the contrary is simply scaremongering and terrible advice. Almost half of smokers die from smoking related illness where I live. The negative health effects and oxidative damage from pyrolysis and from vapourizing a liquid are simply not comparable.

  • Ixoid@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    For me, it was a very effective way of cutting down on my nicotine intake, as others have described, by mixing my own ejuice.
    I vaped for 10-12 months with diminishing nicotine, then quit altogether. I 100% would recommend for smoking cessation.
    I do wonder about those who demand an end to an nearly-harmless substitute for dirty tobacco - are we really willing to sacrifice ‘good’ for ‘perfect’?

    • TouchTheFuckingFrog@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      are we really willing to sacrifice ‘good’ for ‘perfect’?

      It’s not about sacrificing good for perfect, but rather sacrificing good for profit.

      • Ixoid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I suspect the big drivers of the push to demonise vaping are funded by Big Tobacco. So yes, we may be sacrificing a good alternative to protect tobacco profits for a few more years.

        • Sendbeer@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Aren’t there vape companies owned by tobacco companies? I know Vuse is. Tobacco has been on decline for a while now and lot of them are pivoting into other areas.